THE 


UNITY  OF  THE  TRUTH 


IN 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EVOLUTION. 


BY 


J.    MAX    HAKK,    D.D. 
\\ 


NEW  YORK : 

JOHN.  B.  ALDE1ST,  PUBLISHER 

1888. 


143 


Copyright,  1888, 

BY 

THE  PROVIDENT  BOOK  COMPANY. 


TO 

LYMAJST  ABBOTT,  D.D. 

MY  DEAR  BROTHER: 

To  you  I  beg  in  gratitude  to  inscribe  this  little 
volume.  If  there  is  any  worth  in  it,  it  is  owing  to 
the  lessons  in  Christian  thinking — even  rarer  in 
the  world  than  Christian  conduct — derived  from 
the  spirit  of  your  writings.  If  it  has  no  worthy  it 
but  proves  me  an  inapt  scholar  in  learning  and 
practicing  those  lessons.  In  either  case,  you,  I 
Jcnoiu,  will  be  the  one  first  to  approve  or  to  forgive, 
and  the  last  one  to  doubt  the  motives  of  him  who 
shall  ever  remain 

Gratefully  Yours, 

J.  MAX  HARK. 

Lancaster,  Pa.,  March,  1888. 


186704 


PEEFACE. 

IN  the  preface  to  his  latest  volume  of  pub- 
lished sermons,  "The  Appeal  to  Life,"  which 
has  been  a  help  and  an  inspiration  to  thousands, 
Dr.  T.  T.  Hunger  refers  to  the  "vast  number 
who  are  asking  if  they  can  think  under  the 
principle  of  evolution  and  also  as  Christian  be- 
lievers," and  expresses  his  conviction  that  "the 
necessity  of  showing  the  possibility  of  this 
.  .  .  .  is  the  most  imperative  work  now 
pressing  upon  religious  teachers  who  are  able 
to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  who  would 
serve  their  day  and  generation."  My  experi- 
ence for  a  long  time  has  been  pressing  this  same 
conviction  upon  me  with  daily  increasing  ur- 
gency and  force.  People  are  coming  to  me, 
more  and  more  frequently  from  year  to  year, 
with  that  same  question ;  people  of  all  classes, 
—many  professional  men,  more  business  men, 
most  of  all  mechanics  and  working  men, — and 
especially  young  people.  Good,  devout  Chris- 
tians come  in  deep  distress,  after  listening  at 
some  lyceum  or  in  some  private  gathering  to 
the  disciple  of  Ingersoll,  who  in  the  popular 


6  Preface. 

name  of  Evolution,  distorting  a  few  facts  of 
science,  has  been  rudely  shaking  their  faith  in 
God  who  is  a  Spirit,  in  Christ  Jesus  their 
Saviour,  and  in  the  very  existence  of  their  own 
souls; — they  come  anxiously  inquiring,  "Are 
these  things  so?"  It  will  not  do  merely  to  say 
"No!"  They  have  heard  professed  facts,  even 
though  in  wrong  relations ;  and  they  must  be 
given  deeper,  broader  facts,  in  right  relations, 
to  have  their  peace  of  mind  restored.  Others 
again  come  whose  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
the  principle  of  Evolution  is  so  deep  that,  when 
they  read  in  some  theological  journal  such  mis- 
interpretations of  the  vital  truths  of  Christian- 
ity as  make  religion  totally  incompatible  with 
those  of  their  philosophy,  they  feel  that  they 
must  give  up  one  or  the  other.  They  simply 
cannot  renounce  their  convictions.  They  dare 
not  and  would  not  deny  their  faith.  What 
shall  they  do?  Can  I  not  help  them?  I  feel 
that  they  must  be  helped  or  they  inevitably 
will  sink  into  that  state  of  spiritual  apathy  and 
listlessness  in  which,  while  holding  to  the  forms 
of  Christianity,  they  have  lost  all  living  interest 
in  its  eternal  realities ; — they  will  join  the  great 
crowd  of  unthinking  ecclesiastical  formalists, 
who  hold  to  their  creeds  with  their  lips,  but 


Preface.  7 

upon  whose  life  and  character  Christianity  has 
no  true  hold,  and  exerts  no  potent,  saving  in- 
fluence. 

Again  and  again  have  I  been  asked  by  such 
persons,  honest,  earnest,  sincere  men,  and 
women  too,  whether  there  were  not  some  work 
that  I  could  recommend  which  would  meet 
their  wants :  short  enough  for  busy  people  to 
read,  yet  comprehensive  enough  to  explain  the 
essential  principles  of  Christianity  and  of  Evo- 
lution, and  to  show  their  true  relations ;  plain 
and  untechnical  enough  for  unscientific  and 
untheological  persons  to  understand ;  and,  above 
all,  fair  enough,  both  to  Christianity  and  to 
Evolution,  for  honest,  thinking  men  to  appre- 
ciate. I  knew  of  no  single  work  that  fulfilled 
all  these  conditions.  Yet  I  believe  that  similar 
inquiries  are  being  made  and  the  same  want 
felt  all  over  the  country.  So  I  have  tried  to 
make  just  such  a  work,  embodying  in  it  the  re- 
sults of  fifteen  years  of  earnest,  often  anxious, 
study  on  the  subject, — results  arrived  at  gradu- 
ally, after  going  through  all  the  doubts  and 
struggles  in  my  own  experience  in  which  thou- 
sands everywhere  are  still  engaged.  To  me 
these  results  have  brought  the  profound  satis- 
faction and  peace  of  clear  conviction.  If  they 


8  Preface. 

shall  do  the  same  to  others,  bringing  calm 
where  before  was  unrest,  light  where  before 
was  darkness ;  if  they  shall  in  any  degree  help 
them  to  a  knowledge  of  that  Truth  which  shall 
make  them  free,  then  my  labor  shall  not  have 
been  unrewarded,  nor  my  prayers  without  their 
answer. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY.  —  Restlessness  in  religious  thought  —  Its 
significance  —  How  to  be  ™°t-^-rw^  n^^p^-^jpp^ 


OUt    of    harmony    wit.T]     f.hflnlngy  —  Evolution..  the      ^r 

cloimnant  form  of  thought  —  No  real  opposition  be-  S 
tween  it  and  Christianity  —  Sustains  true  Christi-. 
anity  —  False  notions  about  religion  and  the  Bible 

—  Must  be  corrected  —  Past  changes  —  Results  only 
for  good  —  No  spiritual  truths  to  be  abandoned  — 
Salutory  effects  ................................     11 

II. 

GOD.  —  Real  and  seeming  atheism  —  Evolution  not  athe- 
istic —  Essentially  theistic  —  Opposed  to  materialism 

—  Materialism  in  theology  —  God  of  Evolution  a 
Spirit  —  Evolution  not  agnostic  —  Divine  attributes 

—  Personality  —  Wisdom    and    goodness  —  Unity  — 
Love  —  Immanence  .............................     37 

III. 

PROVIDENCE.  —  Wrong  views  —  Opposed  by  Evolution  | 

—  Conditions  of  a  correct  doctrine  —  Furnished  by   I 
Evolution  —  Uniformity  of  divine  method  —  Invari-  I 
ability  —  Regularity  —  Beneficence  —  "Special  Provi-  I 
dence"  —  True    ground  of  trust  —  Knowledge   of 
divine  method  —  Not  of  motives  —  Humble  obedi- 
ence —  Self-righteousness  forbidden  —  Use  of  means 
enjoined  —  Summary  .......  .  ...................     69 

IV. 

PRAYER.  —  Its  universality  —  Low  conceptions  —  False 
basis  of  the  popular  doctrines  —  Conditions  of  true 
prayer  —  Faith  —  Conformity  to  the  divine  will  — 
Trustful  obedience  —  True  end  of  prayer  —  No  di- 
vine interference  —  A  means  of  its  own  answer  — 
An  activity  of  the  entire  being  —  Expression  in 
deeds—  In  words  —  Psychological  grounds  —  Answer 
to  prayer  —  Praying  always—  Agreement  of  Christi- 
anity and  Evolution  ............................  99 


Contents. 


V. 

AN. — Not  "  descended  from  a  monkey  " — Not  instan- 
taneously created  of  nothing — "God  formed  man  " 
— Whether  mediately  or  immediately  not  essential 
to  religion — From  existing  lower  materials — Man's 
spiritual  nature  different  from  his  physical — Given 
by  God — How? — By  new  agencies — Analogical 
cases  —  Immortality — General — Personal  —  Evolu- 
tion supports  Revelation 131 

VI. 

SIN. — Its  universal  prevalence — Its  reality — Whence  is 
it  ?— Unity  of  the  race— The  fall  of  man— Gradual 
apprehension  of  God — Origin  and  growth  of  moral 
conceptions — Later  union  of  religion  and  moral- 
ity— What  is  conscience  ?— Its  authority — Utilitar- 
ianism— Whence  is  conscience  ? — Human  sinful- 
ness — Accounted  for  by  Evolution — A  relic  of 
man's  animal  condition — Penalty  of  sin  inevitable.  161 

VII. 

SALVATION. — What  to  expect  from  Evolution — Law  of 
Reversion — How  counteracted — Saviour  ever  ac- 
tive— Evolution  from  one  stage  of  existence  to  an- 
other— By  new  manifestations  of  Power — Christ 
such  a  manifestation  to  lift  man  from  natural  to 
eternal  life — Necessity  of  a  Saviour — Method  of  sal- 
vation— Theories  of  atonement — New  motive  in 
man — Love  instead  of  selfishness — Generated  by 
Christ— His  life  and  death — The  new  life  of  man — 
The  truth  in  theological  theories — Implied  in  Evo- 
lution— Saving  faith — Forgiveness  of  sin — Sum- 
mary   107 

VIII. 

RELIGION.—  Definition  —  Essential  elements  —  Right 
conception  of  God— Of  Man— Religion  not  confined 
to  the  Church— False  distinction  between  sacred 
and  secular — Importance  of  the  truth  of  the  divine 
immanence — False  ideas  of  the  Church  and  of  wor- 
ship— "  Means  of  grace"— Intellectual  ism— Senti- 
mentalism — Physical  elements  in  religion — Import- 
ance of  environment— Need  of  Christianity  and 
Evolution  working  together 243 


INTRODUCTORY, 


"  No  terms  make  I  with  Bigot,  none  with  blind 
Credulity,  who  leads  the  blind  astray, 
But  rational  Religion  is  my  friend, 
And  I  am  hers,  and  her  supporter  bold. 

I  but  prepare  the  world  for  larger  faith; 
The  doubt  I  plant  stakes  up  the  vine  belief, 
And  Christ  sits  firmer  on  his  kingdom's  throne 
Because  of  Science." 

(W.  H.  VENABLE — A  Vision  of  Science.) 

"In  presence  of  the  theological  thaw  going  on  so  fast  on 
all  sides,  there  is  on  the  part  of  many  a  fear,  and  on  the 
part  of  some  a  hope,  that  nothing  will  remain.  But  the 

hopes   and  the    fears   are    alike   groundless 

Like  the  transformations  that  have  succeeded  one  another 
hitherto,  the  transformation  now  in  progress  is  but  an  ad- 
vance from  a  lower  form,  no  longer  fit,  to  a  higher  and 
fitter  form." 

(HERBERT  SPENCER — The  Study  of  Sociology.) 

"Christianity  being  stationary  and  authoritative,  thought 
progressive  and  independent,  the  causes  which  stimulate 
the  restlessness  of  the  latter  interrupt  the  harmony  which 
ordinarily  exists  between  belief  and  knowledge,  and  pro- 
duce crises,  during  which  religion  is  re-examined." 

(F.  W.  FARRAR—  Critical  History  of  Free  Thought.) 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  mode  of  conceiving  the  opera- 
tions of  nature  which  is  most  widely  accepted  to-day,  which 
goes  under  the  general  designation  of  evolution,  instead  of 
rendering  the  great  cardinal  truths  of  the  gospel  less  credi- 
ble, only  renders  them  more  credible." 

(J.  LEWIS  DIMAN—  The  Tlieistic  Argument.) 


INTEODUCTOEY. 

WHATEVER  difference  of  opinion  there  may  be 
as  to  the  cause,  there  is  no  such  difference  as  to 
the  fact,  of  there  being  at  the  present  time  a  gene- 
ral perturbation  in  the  theological  and  religious 
thought  of  the  world.  This  cannot  be  denied. 
It  is  too  plainly  seen  all  around,  and  strongly 
felt  even  within  our  own  minds  and  hearts. 

Not  only  does  it  show  itself  in  the  manners, 
methods,  and  utterances  of  the  pulpit ;  the  ac- 
tions of  synods  and  conferences;  the  subjects 
uppermost  in  the  religious,  and  prominent  even 
in  the  secular  press,  and  in  the  tone  of  their 
treatment;  the  rise  of  "new  theologies,"  and 
the  multiplication  of  all  manner  of  "heresies;" 
but  especially  in  the  general  attitude  of  the 
religious  public,  and  of  the  secular  as  reflecting 
that  of  the  religious,  over  against  the  ministry, 
the  church,  and  theology.  There  is  a  strong 
distaste  for  the  old  positive,  dogmatic  preach- 
ing of  a  few  generations  ago.  A  feeling  as  if 
there  were  "something  the  matter  with  it;" 
and  on  nearly  the  whole  body  of  Christian 
doctrine  an  unexpressed  doubtfulness,  a  strong 
tendency  to  decided  mental  reservation  in  the 
matter  of  its  acceptance.  The  very  dogmas 


14  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

which  the  fathers  held  with  most  intensity,  the 
children  mentally  shrug  their  shoulders  at,  and 
at  best  subscribe  to  them  only  with  the  lips,  or 
if  they  can  avoid  it,  not  even  that.  There  is 
that  half-heartedness,  listless  indifference,  and 
yet  restless  expectancy  of  no  one  knows  what, 
which  are  the  inevitable  forerunners  and  accom- 
paniments of  every  great  change  in  the  world  of 
thought.  In  a  word,  there  is  an  all-pervadiDg 
unsettlement,  doubting,  questioning,  fearing;  a 
feeling  of  uncertainty  as  to  the  reality  of  even 
the  dearest  and  most  precious  of  our  faiths,  and 
of  the  possibility  of  disappointment  in  even  our 
most  deeply  cherished  hopes. 

And  more  than  this.  Among  thoughtful  men 
faith  in  the  fundamental  verities  is  stronger  than 
ever.  But  there  is  a  suspicion  that  they  have 
been  more  or  less  hidden  and  covered  over  with 
much  that  does  not  essentially  belong  to  them, 
and  from  which  they  ought  to  be  freed ;  that 
much  dust  has  settled  on  the  walls  of  the 
temple  of  Truth;  cobwebs  have  accumulated; 
green  films  of  damp  moss  have  overgrown 
them ;  and  that  it  is  time  for  another  thorough 
cleansing.  Everywhere  men  are  demanding  to 
go  deeper  down  than  the  seeming,  and  be  shown 
the  realities.  Old  definitions  are  reinvestigated. 
Creeds  are  taken  apart  and  criticised  and  re- 
formed. Men  want  to  go  beneath  them. 
Words,  however  venerable  and  sacred,  are  im- 
patiently set  aside.  Things  are  wanted.  Not 


Introductory.  15 

the  gesture;  the  substance.  Scrape  off  the 
dust,  the  cobwebs  and  moss,  that  we  may  see 
and  verify  the  bare  Truth  itself. 

If  there  were  any  proof  needed  of  the  extent 
and  earnestness  of  this  movement,  it  would  be 
afforded  us  by  the  loud  laments  and  fierce  de- 
nunciations of  those  many  zealous  champions 
of  that  which  is,  who  at  the  present  time  are 
pleading  and  thundering  against  it  from  hun- 
dreds of  pulpits,  platforms,  and  editorial  chairs. 
With  tears  in  their  eyes  they  bewail  "the  de- 
generacy of  the  times."  In  vivid  colors  they 
paint  for  us  the  dangers  and  evils  of  what  they 
call  the  prevalent  spirit  of  rationalism,  unbelief, 
agnosticism,  and  atheism.  They  are  discon- 
solate over  the  laxity  of  thought  and  belief  in 
the  church,  the  spirit  of  insubordination,  the 
lack  of  reverence  for  the  old  and  established, 
the  general  defiance  of  ecclesiastical  restraint 
and  authority.  But  they  fail  to  see  or  ac- 
knowledge the  cause  of  the  dreaded  lapse  from 
orthodoxy,  and  to  read  correctly  its  spirit  or  its 
end.  Similarly  are  the  foes  of  religion  utterly 
at  fault  and  doomed  to  disappointment  when 
they  loudly  rejoice  at  the  seeming  disintegration 
of  the  faith,  and  seeing  in  the  present  move- 
ment only  disagreement  and  confusion,  boast 
that  the  downfall  of  divine  truth  is  near  at 
hand. 

Neither  of  these  unwilling  witnesses  seem 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  what  they  deplore, 


16  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

and  rejoice  at,  is  but  the  cracking  of  the  outer 
superficial  shell,  the  proof  and  inevitable  ac- 
companiment of  the  growth  and  expansion  of 
the  living  spirit  within.  ''Those  who  defend, 
equally  with  those  who  assail  religious  creeds," 
says  Herbert  Spencer  very  truly,  "suppose  that 
everything  turns  on  the  maintenance  of  the 
particular  dogmas  at  issue,  whereas  the  dogmas 
are  but  temporary  forms  of  that  which  is  per- 
manent." There  never  yet  was  a  forward 
step  taken  in  religious  thought  which  had  not 
just  such  accompaniments  as  those  we  see 
around  us  everywhere. 

And  who  that  has  read  the  past  to  any  profit, 
who  that  has  faith  in  God's  providence,  can 
doubt  that  the  ultimate  result  will  be  only  for 
good?  The  evil  effects  are  but  transitory. 
Their  very  character  shows  this.  They  are 
growing-pains,  which  are  signs  that  th^  mind 
of  man  is  expanding,  his  heart  enlarging.  We 
are  moving  to  a  higher  plane  of  faith  and  of 
knowledge.  For  a  time  indeed  we  may  find 
ourselves  enveloped  in  mists  and  clouds.  But 
this  very  fact  is  cause  for  greatest  encourage- 
ment. It  is  an  indication  that  our  movement 
is  upward.  A  deadlier  faintness,  a  blacker 
darkness,  enveloped  the  Truth  ere  now,  when 
He  struggled  in  Gethsemane,  when  He  pain- 
fully mounted  Calvary's  heights.  Aye,  not  till 

1  The  Study  of  Sociology. 


Introductory.  17 

He  had  been  lifted  up  on  the  very  Cross  itself 
did  the  vision  become  clear  and  men  see  Him 
to  adore  Him. 

"  And  these  mounts  of  anguish  number, 

how  each  generation  learned 
One  new  word  of  that  grand  Credo, 

which  in  prophet- hearts  hath  burned, 
Since  the  first  man  stood  God-conquered, 

with  his  face  to  heaven  upturned."  2 

Boldly  therefore  we  push  up  their  slopes, 
through  the  clouds,  for  we  know  the  Light  is 
shining  undimmed  beyond. 

It  behooves  every  one,  surely,  who  has  this 
faith,  and  who  recognizes  the  full  import  and 
responsibility  of  his  manhood,  not  cowardly  to 
shirk  the  questions  and  problems  presenting 
themselves,  by  the  thin  pretence  of  a  mechani- 
cal profession  and  outward  adherence  to  the 
effete  symbols  and  forms  of  antiquity,  or  even 
denouncing  and  fighting  against  the  various 
agencies  that  oppose  them,  but  courageously, 
with  firm  trust  in  the  eternal  Right  and  Truth, 
to  meet  them,  grapple  with,  and  as  far  as  may 
be,  settle  them.  One  grain  of  true  faith,  in- 
dependently, honestly  wi  ought  out,  even  though 
it  be  small  as  a  mustard  seed,  is  worth  more 
than  all  the  truths  of  the  catechism  merely 
confessed  with  the  mouth. 

And,  further,  every  thinking  man  owes  it  as 
a  solemn  duty  to  his  fello\v  men  to  contribute 

2  Lowell— The  Present  Crisis. 


18  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

his  share,  however  small  and  insignificant  it  be, 
to  the  thought  of  the  world  and  the  working  out 
of  its  problems.  Each  individual  is  a  unit  of 
force  in  the  development  of  humanity,  and  must 
do  his  part  toward  directing  and  furthering  the 
onward  movement  of  the  universal  spirit,  or  be 
untrue  to  himself,  to  mankind,  and  to  God.  As 
Carlyle  forcibly  says,  "not  Mankind  only,  but 
all  that  Mankind  does  or  beholds,  is  in  continual 
growth,  re-genesis  and  self-perfecting  vitality. 
Cast  forth  thy  Act,  thy  Word,  into  the  ever- 
living,  ever- working  Universe:  it  is  a  seed-grain 
that  cannot  die."  8 

It  is  alone  in  fulfillment  of  this  duty,  and 
because  I  believe  that  the  Truth  can  be  found 
whose  " Peace,  be  still!"  shall  bring  a  calm 
upon  the  heart  of  man  now  cruelly  tossed  and 
torn  by  the  winds  and  waves  of  uncertainty, 
doubt  and  fear,  that  I  have  undertaken  to  re- 
cord my  thoughts  on  the  subject  and  to  offer 
them  to  the  public  in  this  series  of  Studies. 

It  is  only  a  very  superficial  view  of  the  pres- 
ent disturbance  in  the  religious  world  that  con- 
tents itself  with  attributing  it  to  "our  sinful 
nature,"  and  the  "depravity  of  the  human 
heart."  It  has  other  causes.  It  must  have. 
Man  is  not  willingly  an  unbeliever.  His  nature 
craves  for  some  worthy  object  of  belief.  And 
much  less  is  he  ever  really  an  atheist  from 

3  Sartor  Resartns. 


Introductory.  19 

choice.  Yet  there  are  many,  unusually  many, 
of  both  classes  so  called  at  the  present  time, 
upright,  honest,  pure,  and  intelligent  men,  in  the 
church  and  outside  of  it.  They  do  not  wish 
to  renounce  their  religious  beliefs,  which  they 
learned  at  their  mothers'  knees,  and  which  there 
ivere  hallowed  for  them.  But  there  are  so 
nian}^  facts  forced  upon  them  which  seem  di- 
rectly to  contradict  the  doctrines  taught  them, 
that  they  cannot  believe  as  they  once  did.  It 
would  be  a  psychological  impossibility.  The 
most  of  them,  probably,  do  not  even  fully  ac- 
cept, or  understand,  the  antagonistic  proposi- 
tions ;  nor  do  they  prefer  to  believe  them  rather 
than  those  of  the  church.  But  they  cannot 
help  seeing  that  there  they  are:  two  sets  of 
propositions,  apparently  mutually  contradictory, 
at  least  positively  declared  to  be  so.  What  are 
they  to  do?  No  longer  seeing  the  Truth  as 
one,  man  no  longer  sees  the  Truth  at  all. 

]N"or  is  it  only  that  men  are  confronted  with 
seemingly  opposing  facts.  The  harmony  be- 
tween the  different  spheres  of  thought  has  been 
destroyed.  Outside  the  realm  of  theology  the 
modes  and  methods  of  thinking  have  entirely 
changed.  Different  standards  of  truth  are 
there;  different  words  for  expressing  it;  as  it 
were,  a  wholly  different  atmosphere  is  breathed 
and  a  different  light  shines  there.  Yet  in- 
stinctively the  soul  knows  that  there  can  be  but 
one  standard  for  all  spheres.  The  double  Ian- 


20  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

guage  deafens;  the  double  atmosphere  stifles; 
the  double  light  blinds  it.  Is  it  a  wonder  then 
that  the  human  spirit  should  struggle  and  cry 
to  escape  from  this  blackness  of  despair,  or  that 
its  struggles  should  sometimes  cause  confusion, 
and  its  cries  be  incoherent?  Sin  and  depravity 
would  not  do  so ;  but  the  love  of  truth  cannot 
do  otherwise. 

Let  us  endeavor,  then,  first  of  all,  to  discover 
what  has  brought  about  this  disharmony.  Un- 
less we  succeed  in  this,  all  efforts  at  restoring 
harmony  will  be  in  vain. 

We  may  be  guided  somewhat  in  our  task  by 
learning  from  the  experience  of  the  past. 
Whenever  a  crisis  like  the  present  came,  we  know 
that  it  was  caused  either  directly  or  indirectly 
by  some  important  discovery  in  the  realm  of 
material  nature,  or  the  prevalence  of  some  new 
theory  of  knowledge ;  that  is,  by  some  great 
and  far-reaching  change  in  the  science  or  phi- 
losophy of  the  times.  "We  know,  too,  that  always 
the  new  discovery  was  at  first  denied,  especially 
by  theology,  until  at  last  it  was  forced  reluc- 
tantly to  readjust  its  dogmas  and  forms,  and 
readapt  itself  to  the  new  order  of  facts,  laws,1 
or  modes  of  thought.  There  was  a  great  cry 
of  heresy  and  atheism  when  Columbus  ven- 
tured to  assert  that  there  must  be  a  hemisphere 
beyond  the  western  seas.  Still  worse  was  it 
when  Copernicus  advanced  the  theory  that  the 
sun  does  not  move  around  the  earth,  but  the 


Introductory.  21 

earth  and  all  the  planets  around  the  sun. 
Theology  was  horrified;  Copernicus  hated  and 
hooted,  cursed  and  persecuted.  Even  as  late 
as  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
famous  Puritan  divine,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Owen,  declared:  "The  late  hypothesis,  fixing 
the  sun  as  the  center  of  the  world,  was  built  on 
fallible  phenomena,  and  advanced  by  many  ar- 
bitrary presumptions  against  the  evident  testi- 
monies of  Scripture  and  reason. ' '  There  was 
a  revolution  in  theology.  The  pious  lamented 
the  growth  of  unbelief  and  heresy.  Their  foes 
boasted  of  the  near  downfall  of  all  religion. 
But  finally  everything  was  adjusted,  and  the 
equilibrium  between  the  religious  and  the  sci- 
entific spheres  fully  restored.  When  Newton 
discovered  the  law  of  gravitation  the  cry  again 
was  everywhere  raised,  "It  is  atheism!  It 
denies  the  Bible!"  The  theory  of  Newton  was 
declared  to  be  part  of  a  deeply  laid  plot  to 
overthrow  the  whole  theology  of  the  Script- 
ures. Descartes  and  Kepler  and  Galileo  were 
denounced,  imprisoned,  and  persecuted  for 
similar  reasons. 

Always  there  was  a  season  of  doubt,  fear, 
confusion  in  the  church.  But  always  at  last  its 
dogmas  and  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  its 
teachings  and  modes  of  thought,  at  last  were 
brought  into  harmony  with  the  new  discoveries. 

4  Works,  vol.  xix. 


22  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  spiritual  growth  in  the 
world  that  first  one  side,  the  scientific  and 
philosophical,  advances,  while  the  other,  the 
theological,  stands  still.  The  harmony  be- 
tween them  is  thus  disturbed ;  their  equilibrium 
destroyed.  Violent  agitation  is  the  result, 
conflict  and  confusion.  And  this  continues 
until  the  theological  sphere  makes  correspond- 
ing progress,  comes  into  harmony  with  the 
others,  and  thus  the  necessary  equilibrium  is 
restored% 

To  find  the  cause  of  the  present  unrest  and 
agitation,  therefore,  we  are  with  confidence 
directed  to  the  sphere  of  natural  science  and 
philosophy.  It  must  be  out  of  harmony  with 
the  theological.  Peace  will  only  be  gained  by 
bringing  them  into  harmony. 

In  the  department  of  science  we  find  that 
there  have  indeed  been  almost  unprecedented 
advances  made  within  the  last  few  decades.  In 
Astronomy,  Geology,  Biology,  Psychology, 
Sociology,  Comparative  Theology,  and  indeed 
in  almost  every  other  science,  there  have  been 
discoveries  made  that  have  overturned  all 
previous  theories,  and  have  given  rise  to  an  en- 
tirely new  conception  of  the  universe,  brought 
to  light  new  facts,  made  necessary  new  methods 
of  research,  and  turned  the  human  mind  into 
new  directions  and  fields  of  knowledge.  All 
these  have  ranged  themselves  along  the  line  of 
a  new  system  of  thought,  with  principles  more 


Introductory.  23 

profound  and  comprehensive,  and  laws  more 
far-reaching  and  universally  applicable,  than 
any  known  before. 

Evolution  is  indeed  still  only  a  hypothetical  i 
theory,  in  the  sense  that  it  has  not  been  fully 
and  positively  demonstrated  in  all  its  details. 
When  we  consider  of  how  recent  origin  it  is, 
and  how  wide  the  range  of  facts  it  is  expected 
to  cover,  we  do  not  wonder  at  this ;  but  rather 
wonder  that  the  co-ordination  of  laws  and 
phenomena  under  it  is  already  as  complete  as  it 
is,  and  the  acceptance  of  the  system  as  general. 
It  can  only  be,  it  appears  to  me,  because,  rec- 
ognizing with  Emerson  that  the  test  of  the 
truth  of  a  theory  "is,  that  it  will  explain  all 
phenomena,"  men  feel  that,  though  not  yet 
fully  proven,  Evolution  endures  that  test  more 
satisfactorily  than  any  other  theory. 

For,  say  what  we  will,  the  fact  remains  that 
in  spite  of  every  prejudice  against  it,  of  all  the 
violent  opposition  and  fierce  assaults  upon  it, 
Evolution  not  only  still  exists,  but  is  more  firmly 
established  to-day  than  ever  before,  and  is  stead- 
ily making  its  influence  more  and  more  widely 
felt.  Everywhere  thoughtful  men  are  being 
deeply  affected  by  such  fundamental  facts  as 
the  correlation  and  conservation  of  force,  the 
antiquity  of  the  earth  and  of  man,  the  influ- 
ence of  heredity,  natural  selection,  and  those 
laws  brought  to  light  by  the  new  science  of 
sociology.  And  although  they  do  not  by  any 


24  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

means  all  agree  as  to  details,  yet  as  to  the 
general  principle  of  Evolution  there  is  evidently 
enough  truth  in  it  to  have  already  won  over  to 
it  most  of  the  leading  men  of  science,  not  a 
few  prominent  theologians  even,  and  to  have 
influenced  to  a  really  remarkable  degree  the 
whole  current  of  popular  tnought  and  belief. 
It  is  the  reigning  philosophy.  It  holds  full 
sway  in  the  physical  sciences.  Art  has  been 
sensibly  affected  by  it.  Its  phraseology  at  least 
is  fashionable  in  literature.  The  very  text- 
books of  our  public  schools  use  its  language  and 
imply  its  principles.  Its  friends,  its  foes,  and 
the  indifferent  alike  must  confess  with  the  late 
eminent  thinker,  Dr.  J.  Lewis  Diman,  that 
"the  doctrine  of  evolution  may  be  said  to  sum 
up  and  comprehend  the  speculative  movement 
of  our  time.  It  is  the  word  which  science  pro- 
nounces as  a  solution  of  the  riddle  of  existence, 
the  characteristic  form  in  which  the  thought  of 
the  present  age  has  shaped  itself.  .  .  . 
This  doctrine  must  be  accepted  then  as  the 
characteristic  note  of  contemporary  thought."  6 
Now  all  the  prevalent  disturbance  and  un- 
easiness in  the  theological  and  religious  world 
are  simply  the  result  of  the  recognition  that  it 
is  not  in  accord  with  this  ' '  characteristic  note 
of  contemporary  thought,"  that  the  equilibrium, 
of  the  thought- world  has  been  disturbed;  and 

6  The  Theistic  Argument. 


Introductory.  25 

then  the  striving  of  some  to  bring  it  into  more 
or  less  complete  accord,  and  the  refusal  of 
others  to  do  anything  of  the  kind. 

It  is  the  former  tendency  that  is  so  strongly 
felt  in  the  department  of  Biblical  criticism,  for 
instance,  represented  by  Wellhausen,  Kuenen, 
Eobertson  Smith  and  others,  in  Europe,  and 
numbers  of  their  followers  in  this  country.  The 
whole  "new  movement"  in  theology,  that  has 
started  in  New  England,  is  but  another  phase  of 
this  same  tendency,  embracing  leading  men  un- 
der it,  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  probably  all  de- 
nominations. I  am  well  aware  that  many  of 
these  very  men  are  openly  opposed  to  the  phi- 
losophy of  Evolution  as  a  whole.  The  most  of 
them  are  probably  not  aware  of  its  influence  as 
the  ultimate  ground  of  their  discontent  with  the 
old;  nor  of  the  reason,  lying  deep  down  be- 
neath all  others,  which  gives  the  particular 
direction  to  their  thought  and  endeavors.  I 
cannot  but  regard  this  as  unfortunate.  For  all 
reform  and  revision  that  does  not  recognize  the 
principle  underlying  it,  and  in  obedience  to 
which  alone  it  can  succeed,  must  involve  a  great 
deal  of  waste  of  time  and  energy.  Far  better 
would  it  be  were  the  root  of  the  whole  matter 
at  once  fairly  and  clearly  acknowledged,  and 
then  the  efforts  of  all  united  in  the  one  definite 
direction.  Yet  even  as  it  is,  a  good  work  is 
being  done  by  this  movement,  which,  though 
more  or  less  disjointed  and  indefinite,  is  on  the 


26  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

whole  helping  mightily  to  bring  about  the  de- 
sired result,  and  to  reach  the  true  end,  of  which 
many  of  the  workers  may  themselves  not  be 
clearly  conscious. 

All  the  more  earnestly,  therefore,  let  those 
who  do  recognize  the  real  cause  of  the  present 
disturbance  in  thought  to  be  the  vague,  half- 
unconscious  feeling  of  a  discord  between  theol- 
ogy on  the  one  hand,  and  nearly  all  the  rest  of 
the  departments  of  knowledge  and  belief  on  the 
other,  aim  directly  at  the  removal  of  this  cause. 
Bring  them  into  harmony.  Whatever  diversity 
there  may  be  between  their  several  forms  and 
modes  of  thought  and  expression,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  the  essential  principles  of  Evolution,  as 
I  hope  to  succeed  in  showing,  that  contradicts 
any  of  the  essential  facts  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. I  lay  stress  upon  the  word  essential 
here.  For  there  are  current  many  different 
theories  built  up  of  materialistic  and  atheistic 
interpretations,  and  inferences  which  are  not 
necessarily  nor  legitimately  involved  in  the 
fundamental  principles  themselves.  With  them 
we  have  nothing  to  do. 

As  defined  by  Herbert  Spencer,  Evolution 
"is  an  integration  of  matter  and  concomitant 
dissipation  of  motion ;  during  which  the  matter 
passes  from  an  indefinite,  incoherent  homo- 
geneity to  a  definite,  coherent  heterogeneity, 
and  during  which  the  retained  motion  under 


Introductory.  27 

goes  a  parallel  transformation."6  "Without 
entering  here  upon  the  question  whether  this  is 
an  adequate  and  sufficiently  comprehensive 
definition  or  not,  it  is  enough  for  us  to  learn 
from  it  that  all  that  evolutionists  intend  is  to 
give  us  a  generalized  statement  of  the  process 
according  to  which  the  various  phenomena  of 
the  world  advance  from  simple  and  lower  to 
more  complicated  and  higher  conditions  and 
forms  of  being,  verifiable  by  observed  facts  and 
experiments.  Now  when  we  remember  that 
the  Bible  and  religion  tell  us  nothing  at  all 
about  methods,  how  can  Evolution  contradict  or 
in  any  way  come  in  conflict  with,  them,  since  it 
tells  us  as  little  about  anything  else  but  methods  ? 
But  further  than  this,  I  hope  to  show  that 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Evolution  in  so 
far  positively  sustain  those  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, and  make  them  more  easily  intelligible. 
I  believe,  for  example,  that  correctly  and  con- 
sistently interpreted  they  will  help  us  to  truer 
and  loftier  conceptions  of  the  being  and  nature 
of  God  than  we  had  before.  Their  influence 
in  this  direction  is  already  being  felt  and  ac- 
knowledged in  the  more  recent  works  on  the- 
ology. So  likewise  they  directly  substantiate 
and  explain  such  Scripture  teachings  as  the 
unity  of  the  race,  the  innate  sinf  ulness  of  man, 

6  First  Principles. 


28  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

and  indeed  all  the  other  fundamental  doctrines 
of  our  religion. 

ro 
Of  course,  I  do  not  maintain  that  Evolution 
vvill  agree  with  every  detail  of  our  present  sys- 
tems of  theology,  nor  with  some  of  the  popular 
interpretations  of  passages  of  Scripture.  But  I 
do  hold  that  all  that  is  essential  in  the  theory 
will  be  found  reconcilable  with  the  vital,  es- 
sential facts  of  Christianity.  There  may  have 
to  be,  nay,  there  will  be,  changes  in  the  ac- 
cepted views  of  what  the  Bible  says,  just  as 
there  have  often  been  such  changes  before ;  but 
only  on  points  not  affecting  the  spiritual  truths 
of  religion.  There  was  a  time  when  the  Bible 
was  thought  to  teach  that  the  earth  was  flat, 
shaped  like  a  plate.  Science  discovered  its 
spherical  form,  and  though  it  was  denounced  as 
contrary  to  Scripture,  the  truth  yet  prevailed ; 
and  then,  on  closer  examination,  it  was  found 
that  the  Bible  had  never  taught  anything 
different.  Man's  interpretation  had  been  wrong, 
that  was  all;  not  the  Bible.  So  it  was  long 
confidently  believed  that  Revelation  taught  that 
the  sun  moved  around  the  earth.  But  it  never 
taught  anything  of  the  kind;  men  had  only 
read  it  wrongly.  It  was  until  comparatively 
recent  times  that  people  imagined  that  the 
Bible  declared  the  earth  to  have  been  created  in 
six  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  Geology 
showed  that  this  must  be  a  mistake ;  and,  sure 
enough,  on  looking  more  closely  it  appeared  that 


Introductory.  29 

man's  interpretation  had  again  been  incorrect, 
and  that  the  Bible  said  nothing  about  the  dura- 
tion of  the  work  of  creation.  Yet  after  all  these 
changes  in  human  exegesis,  true  religion  was 
as  strong,  and  stronger,  than  it  had  been  before. 

There  is,  therefore,  nothing  alarming  in  the 
prospect  that  we  may  possibly  have  to  make 
some  further  corrections  in  our  ideas  of  what 
Revelation  declares  to  us.  "We  hail  such  changes 
if  they  shall  lead  us  to  a  fuller,  clearer  view  of 
the  divine  Truth.  We  are  not  conceited  enough 
to  imagine,  I  trust,  that  we  have  already 
attained  to  all  knowledge  and  wisdom;  but 
humble  enough  to  believe  that  we  may  have 
made  some  more  mistakes  in  our  Scripture  in- 
terpretation, and  that  there  may  be  yet  un- 
dreamed-of gems  of  richest  truth  in  the  "Word 
of  God  reserved  for  our  future  instruction  and 
enlightenment.  The  more  mistakes  of  ours 
are  found  out,  the  more  clearly  will  God's  truth 
appear ;  and  the  fuller  the  measure  of  truth  we 
enjoy,  the  purer  and  loftier  will  be  our  religion. 

There  has  been  and  must  still  be  growth, 
development,  progress  towards  perfection,  in 
our  knowledge  of  God  as  well  as  in  everything 
else.  "No  more  in  this  than  in  other  things," 
to  use  the  language  of  Mr.  Spencer,  ' '  will  evo- 
lution alter  its  general  direction:  it  will  con- 
tinue along  the  same  lines  as  hitherto."  7  For 

T  The  Study  of  Sociology. 


30  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

every  old  and  false  notion  we  may  have  to  sur- 
render, we  will  be  compensated  by  the  reception 
of  a  multitude  of  truer,  better  facts.  It  has 
ever  been  thus ;  and  thus  ever  it  will  be. 

In  the  sphere  of  systematic  theology  there  have 
been  vast  changes  in  the  past,  even  in  recent 
times;  and  they  are  still  going  on.  As  the 
British  laureate  beautifully  puts  it : 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be; 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they."  8 

Yes,  for  thou,  O  Lord,  art  the  Truth  himself, 
and  they  are  but  feeble  human  gropings  after 
thee,  if  haply  they  may  feel  after  and  find 
thee !  How  have  our  views  and  definitions  of 
God  changed,  been  purified,  since  the  days  of 
scholasticism,  or  even  since  the  times  of  early 
Puritanism!  The  doctrine  of  the  atonement 
is  to-day  held  in  a  far  different  form  from  the 
harsh  and  repellant  conceptions  of  a  few  cen- 
turies ago.  Not  less  has  been  the  advance 
through  change  in  the  doctrines  of  sin,  regen- 
eration, the  divine  justice,  and  others  just  as 
fundamental,  since  the  Rev.  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  A.  M.,  embodied  the  popular  theology  of 
his  times  in  his  "Day  of  Doom,"  verses  which, 
according  to  Prof,  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  had  a 
"popular  influence  only  inferior  to  that  of  the 

8  In  Memoriam. 


Introductory.  31 

Bible  and  the  Shorter  Catechism;"  '  in  which, 
among  much  that  is  even  worse,  God  is  repre- 
sented as  thus  replying  to  the  unbaptized  infants 
who  plead  for  mercy  at  his  judgment  bar : 

"Am  I  alone  of  what's  my  own  no  master  or  no  Lord? 
Or  if  I  am,  how  can  you  claim  what  I  to  some  afford? 
Will  you  demand  Grace  at  niy  hand,  and  challenge  what  is 

mine? 
Will  you  teach  me  whom  to  set  free,  and  thus  my  Grace 

confine? 

"  You  sinners  are,  and  such  a  share  as  sinners  may  expect, 
Such  you  shall  have;  for  I  do  save  none  but  my  own  Elect. 
Yet  to  compare  your  sin  with  theirs  who  liv'd  a  longer  time 
I  do  confess  yours  is  much  less,  though  every  sin's  a  crime. 

"  A  Crime  it  is,  therefore  in  bliss  you  may  not  hope  to  dwell; 

But  unto  you  I  shall  allow  the  easiest  room  in  Hell. 

The  glorious  King  thus  answering  they  cease  and  plead  no 

longer: 
Their  Consciences  must  needs  confess  his  Reasons  are  the 

stronger."  10 

Shall  we  then  arrogantly  suppose  that  in  our 
day  all  growth  has  suddenly  stopped?  We 
cannot.  For  not  only  is  it  even  now  mightily 
going  on  all  around  us,  but  it  must  go  on.  It 
is  the  very  nature  of  all  truth  to  do  so.  As  Dr. 
T.  T.  Hunger  truly  says,  "It  is  a  mistake  to 
regard  the  truths  of  the  Christian  faith,  even 
those  that  are  called  leading  and  fundamental, 
as  having  a  fixed  form.  .  .  .  Truth  is  not 
something  handed  down  from  heaven,  a  moral 

9  History  of  American  Literature. 
10  Quoted  by  Tyler,  supra. 


32  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

parcel  of  known  size  and  weight,  but  is  a  dis- 
closure of  God  through  the  order  of  the  world 
and  of  the  Spirit."11 

We  may  therefore  as  well  expect  at  the  out- 
set, and  without  being  in  the  least  alarmed 
thereat,  that  there  will  have  to  be  some  con- 
siderable changes  in  our  present  systems  of 
theology,  and  forms  and  habits  of  theological 
thought,  before  anything  like  a  proper  equi- 
librium in  the  spiritual  world  will  be  reached. 
Schleiermacher's  "  presentiment"  may  even 
have  to  be  fulfilled,  of  which  he  wrote  as  early 
as  1829  to  a  younger  friend,  "that  we  will  yet 
have  to  learn  to  do  without  a  great  deal  which 
many  still  are  accustomed  to  think  is  inextri- 
cably involved  in  the  very  essence  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  But  I  firmly  believe  th at  every  change 
that  will  be  made  and  confirmed  will  be  only 
for  the  better.  ' '  Like  the  transformations  that 
have  succeeded  one  another  hitherto,"  again  to 
quote  Mr.  Spencer,  "the  transformation  now  in 
progress  is  but  an  advance  from  a  lower  form, 
no  longer  fit,  to  a  higher  and  fitter  form;  and 
neither  will  this  transformation,  nor  kindred 
transformations  to  come  hereafter,  destroy  that 
which  is  transformed  more  than  past  transfor- 
mations have  destroyed  it. ' ' ia 

On  the  contrary,  I  confidently  maintain  and 
hope  to  be  able  to  prove,  that  the  influence  of 

11  The  Freedom  of  Faith. 

12  The  Study  of  Sociology. 


Introductory.  33 

Evolution,  so  far  as  it  bears  on  the  subject,  will 
not  only  not  weaken,  but  greatly  strengthen  and 
enlighten,  our  living,  practical  religious  faith  in 
an  all-wise  and  ever-present,  omnipotent,  all- 
loving  Father.  Our  belief  in  immortality  will 
not  suffer  by  having  demonstrated  to  it  the  abso- 
lute indestructibility  of  all  entities.  Our  trust  in 
Providence,  confidence  in  the  use  of  prayer,  and 
solemn  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  will  not 
be  made  feebler,  though  they  may  be  deepened, 
broadened,  and  made  more  intelligent,  by  being 
shown  how  unalterably  fixed  are  the  eternal 
laws  according  to  which  all  things  subsist,  from 
the  merest  mote  that  flies  in  the  air,  to  the  most 
intricate  thought  or  feeling  in  the  heart  of  man, 
or  the  sentiments  and  deeds  of  a  heterogeneous 
crowd,  community,  or  race.  Nor  will  our  deep 
consciousness  of  sinfulness  and  longing  for  sal- 
vation be  enfeebled  by  being  instructed  as  to 
the  influence  of  the  laws  of  heredity,  reversal 
to  type,  and  the  relations  between  organism 
and  environment. 

We  may,  indeed,  have  to  realize  how  much 
of  truth  there  is  in  Carlyle's  saying,  that  "First 
must  the  dead  Letter  of  Keligion  own  itself 
dead,  and  drop  piecemeal  into  dust,  if  the  living 
Spirit  of  Religion,  freed  from  this  its  charnel- 
house,  is  to  arise  on  us,  new-born  of  heaven, 
and  with  new  healing  under  its  wings. "  1S  But 

13  Sartor  Resartus. 


34  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

even  while  losing  much  of  the  old  shell  of  form- 
al theology,  the  devout  Christian  need  sur- 
render none  of  the  life  of  his  Christianity ;  none 
of  his  faith  in  the  redeeming,  saving  power  of 
the  great  Spirit  of  Eight,  Truth,  self-sacrificing 
Love,  of  Holiness,  that  Eternal  Word  who  for  a 
time  was  concretely  embodied  in  the  flesh,  that 
we  might  behold  his  glory,  and  thence  forward 
forever  live  only  his  life,  the  only  true  Man's 
life ; — none  of  his  love  to  his  fellow  men,  his  sym- 
pathy and  helpfulness ;  none  of  his  hope  in  that 
future  when  good  shall  have  conquered  evil,  and 
there  shall  be  no  more  tears  nor  sickness,  no  sin, 
and  no  more  night  of  ignorance  there,  but  he 
who  is  Love  shall  be  all  and  in  all,  and  shall  fill 
heaven  and  earth  with  his  glory.  This  faith,  this 
love,  this  hope,  no  theology  can  give  and  no  phi- 
losophy can  take  away.  This  religion  Evolution 
helps  us  to  hold  and  encourages  us  to  practice. 

For,  whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  the 
present  tendency  as  regards  the  contents  of 
men's  belief,  its  effects  on  the  spirit  of  religion 
must  be  decidedly  salutary.  Already  thought- 
ful men,  spurred  on  by  the  very  doubt  that 
prevails,  and  the  feeling  of  impatience  of  every 
restraint  and  authority  in  spiritual  matters,  are 
everywhere  engaged  in  earnest,  independent 
thought,  research,  and  study.  This  is  in  itself 
a  guarantee  of  good  things  to  come. 
f  It  is  not  till  we  have  ourselves  labored, 
struggled,  and  perhaps  suffered  for  our  faith  in 


Introductory.  35 

the  process  of  making  it  a  part  of  our  being, 
I  that  it  becomes  a  personal,  living,  working  con- 
viction in  us.  One  single  fact  thus  obtained  is 
"worth  more  than  a  thousand  merely  passively 
accepted.  Truth  received  at  second  hand  is 
indeed  better  than  none  at  all,  as  reflected  light 
is  better  than  darkness.  But  at  best  how  dif- 
ferent it  is  from  the  living  flame  itself,  shining 
direct  and  immediate  into  our  very  soul !  What 
a  glow  and  living  warmth  it  infuses,  such  as 
the  feeble  reflection  scarce  gave  us  a  hint  of! 
"We  no  longer  only  look  at  it  and  admire.  It 
fills  us,  takes  possession,  becomes  part  of  our- 
selves, or  rather  makes  us  part  of  itself.  We 
not  only  see  it.  It  touches  us  all  over.  We 
not  only  believe  it.  We  have  it ;  we  absorb, 
we  live  it.  It  becomes  a  vital,  working  force 
in  our  lives,  beside  which  a  dozen  creeds  given 
us  from  without  by  another  seem  but  as  a  tale 
that  is  told.  They  may  be  far  more  elaborate, 
far  more  complete  than  it,  as  infinitely  superior 
as  is  some  grand  old  domed  cathedral  to  a  back- 
woods hut  of  logs.  But  the  hut  is  mine!  I 
have  built  it.  I  know  every  log,  every  stone  in 
it.  It  is  my  home.  It  is  to  me  what  all  the 
cathedrals  in  the  world  could  never  be. 

If  nothing  more  were  gained  than  this,  the 
vivifying  and  re-invigorating  of  our  practical 
religiousness,  it  would  be  worth  all  that  it  will 
cost.  And  that  my  humble  efforts  to  guide 
and  assist  my  fellow  men  in  attaining  to  such  a 


36  Introductory. 

state,  by  removing  the  doubt  and  uncertainty 
that  now  prevent  it,  and  showing  them  at  least  in 
what  direction  peace  and  strength-giving  har- 
mony are  to  be  sought  between  the  several  de- 
partments of  truth  that  seem  to  be  at  present 
engaged  in  an  unnatural  warfare ; — that  a  sense 
of  the  unity  of  all  truth,  the  agreement  and  co- 
operation of  all  its  parts,  making  for  the  ever- 
lasting glory  of  God,  a  certainty  as  deep,  as 
satisfying,  and  as  inspiring  as  that  which  through 
these  studies  I  have  reached,  may  also  fill  their 
souls  to  the  realization  of  that  peace  of  God 
which  passeth  understanding,— this  is  my  most 
earnest  prayer ;  and  if  it  shall  be  fulfilled  even 
only  in  part,  this  shall  be  my  greatest  satisfac- 
tion and  cause  for  ^smcerest  thanksgiving  to 
him,  the  divine  Spirit  of  God,  who  alone  can 
guide  us  into  all  truth. 


II. 
GOD. 


"  In  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  '* 

PAUL— Acts  17:  28. 

"  Man  cannot  be  God's  outlaw  if  he  would, 
Nor  so  abscond  him  in  the  caves  of  sense 
But  Nature  still  shall  search  some  crevice  out 
With  messages  of  splendor  from  that  Source 
Which,  dive  he,  soar  he,  baffles  still  and  lures." 

(LOWELL—  The  Cathedral) 

"The  fiction  of  an  unknown  or  distant  or  sleeping 
divinity  has  completely  disappeared,  and  the  Living  God 
of  science  brightens  the  whole  universe." 

(KESHUB  CHUNDEK  SEN,  in  the  Independent.) 

"  Was  war'  ein  Gott,  der  nur  von  aussen  stiesse, 
Im  Kreis  das  All  am  Finger  1  an  fen  liesse! 
Ihm  ziemts  die  Welt  im  Innern  zu  bewegen, 
Natur  in  Sich,  Sich  in  Natur  zu  hegen; 
So  daas,  was  in  Ihm  lebt  und  webt  und  ist, 
Nie  seine  Kraft,  nie  seinen  Geist  vermisst." 

(GOETHE — Spruche  in  Reimen.) 

"  It  is  the  characteristic  thought  of  God  at  present  that 
He  is  immanent  in  all  created  things,— immanent  yet  per- 
sonal, the  life  of  all  lives,  the  power  of  all  powers,  the  soul 
of  the  universe;  that  He  is  most  present  where  there  is  most 
perfection." 

(T.   T.  MUNGER—  The  Freedom  of  Faith.) 

"  When  we  have  broken  our  god  of  tradition,  and  ceased 
from  our  god  of  rhetoric,  then  may  God  fire  the  heart  with 

his  presence." 

(EMERSON—  The  Over -Soul.) 


II. 

GOD. 

IF  we  may  judge  from  the  frequency  with 
which  we  hear  and  read  the  word  "atheist" 
nowadays,  the  world  must  be  full  of  fools. 
For  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the 
Psalmist  was  correct  when  he  declared,  ' '  The 
fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God." 

And  yet  we  know  that  there  are  many  men, 
more  at  the  present  time,  perhaps,  than  ever 
before,  who  have  said  "There  is  no  God,"  and 
who  nevertheless  are  not  fools.  Some  of  them 
indeed  are  worse.  They  have  affirmed  witli 
their  lips  what  in  their  hearts  they  knew  to  be 
untrue,  — probably  for  the  sake  of  notoriety,  or 
even  only  in  order  to  make  money  by  their  dis- 
honest, blasphemous  lectures.  Others  have  said 
it  who  were  simply  mistaken  as  to  their  own  con- 
victions, or  incorrect  in  their  expression.  They 
did  not  really  mean  that  there  is  no  God ;  but 
that  there  is  no  such  God  as  is  represented  by 
this  or  that  teacher.  The  evil  is  not  theirs  so 
much  as  that  of  those  who  by  their  false  and 
narrow  definitions  of  God  have  rendered  belief 
in  him  impossible  to  many ;  and  by  their  dog- 
matic positiveness  have  made  the  popular  im- 
pression that  unless  their  notion  and  definition 


40  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

be  accepted,  atheism  is  the  only  possible  alter- 
native. 

These  are  the  ones  who  by  their  lavish  appli- 
cation of  the  term  atheist  would  people  all 
the  world  outside  of  themselves  with  fools, 
thereby  committing  the  greatest  folly  of  all. 
Socrates  was  denounced  as  an  atheist,  and  killed 
for  it,  because  he  did  not  believe  in  the  gods 
pictured  and  worshiped  by  the  Athenians. 
Yet  he  did  believe  in  God,  and  his  faith  was 
more  correct  and  noble  far  than  that  of  his 
judges  and  murderers.  They,  and  not  he,  were 
the  worse  atheists  and  fools.  And  since  his 
time  there  have  been  not  a  few  like  him  and 
like  them  in  this  respect.  Some  of  the  best 
and  wisest  men  of  our  time  have  been  called 
atheists,  when  in  reality  they  were  far  more 
devout  and  true  believers  than  those  who  thus 
slandered  them.  ' ' If  we  must  be  as  these  are, ' ' 
they  have  exclaimed,  "then  much  rather  will 
we  do  without  faith  and  without  religion." 
And  the  recoil  from  the  positiveness  and  arro- 
gant presumption  of  their  accusers  has  driven 
them  further  into  agnosticism  or  indifference 
than  ever  they  would  otherwise  have  gone,  or 
than  calm  consistency  with  their  principles 
warranted. 

Though  there  is  a  more  temperate  class,  and 
it  is  steadily  growing  in  influence  and  numbers, 
the  mass  of  men  is  still  divided  between  these 
two  antagonistic  parties.  And  as  the  one  con- 


God.  41 

sists  mainly  of  those  who  profess  to  be  evolu- 
tionists, and  those  who,  without  professing  it 
have  yet  had  their  thoughts  largely  moulded  by 
the  all-pervading  influence  of  the  philosophy  of 
Evolution,  while  the  other  is  composed  of  the 
open  opponents  of  this  theory  and  professed 
believers  in  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  religion, 
it  naturally  is  made  to  appear  that  Evolution 
and  Christianity  are  directly  contradictory  of 
each  other  as  far  as  their  teachings  on  the  being 
and  nature  of  God  are  concerned.  Indeed  on 
no  other  subject  is  the  prevalent  lack  of  har- 
mony in  human  thought  more  apparent.  No- 
where is  the  equilibrium  more  visibly  and 
violently  disturbed.  Yet  it  is  probably  nowhere 
more  superficial  and  groundless  than  just  here. 

For,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  funda^l 
mental  principles  of  Evolution,  on  the  one  | 
hand,  to  necessitate  the  total  agnosticism  pro- 
fessed by  some  of  its  adherents,  nor  of  Chris- 
tianity on  the  other  to  warrant  the  expressions 
of  minute  and  presumptuous  knowledge  in- 
dulged in  by  the  orthodox,  f  The  Bible  does  not 
tell  us  nearly  as  much  about  the  divine  being 
and  nature  as  some  of  the  still  current  theol- 
ogy does;  and  Evolution  implies  more  about 
them  than  some  evolutionists  say  it  does,  and 
than  it  is  popularly  credited  with.  If  the  mis- 
takes of  both  were  corrected,  there  would  result 
a  conception  of  God,  different  indeed  from 
many  that  are  current,  but  only  because  far 


42  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

clearer,  truer,  more  lofty  and  ennobling.  This 
will,  however,  never  be  accomplished  by  mutual 
fear,  hatred,  abuse  and  denunciation ;  but  only 
by  an  honest  attempt  at  mutual  understanding 
of  each  other's  principles,  and  then  a  fair  mu- 
tual adaptation  and  adjustment  of  forms  of 
and  expression. 

The  truth  of  the  Bible  and  the  truth  of  Evo- 
lution are  one.  The  only  conflict  is  between  its 
several  interpreters  and  exponents.  Make  the 
world  realize  this,  and  true  religion  will  no 
longer  be  hampered  and  hindered  by  ener- 
vating doubt  and  degrading  suspicion,,  hatred 
and  strife;  but  will  again  exert  its  beneficent 
power  in  the  prosecution  of  its  legitimate  and 
most  blessed  work. 

Let  us  do  our  humble  part  in  bringing  this 
about,  by  trying  to  show,  first,  that  atheism 
and  materialism  are  forever  rendered  impossi- 
ble by  Evolution;  then,  that  Evolution  is  in- 
consistent with  agnosticism;  and  finally,  that 
in  the  true  God,  the  God  of  the  Bible  and  of 
nature,  the  God  to  whom  the  intelligence  and 
heart  of  man  freely,  sincerely,  joyously  go  out 
in  loving  worship,  the  evolutionist  and  the 
Christian  can  alike  believe. 

Absolute  atheism  is  a  logical  impossibility  to 
the  consistent  evolutionist.  Hence  while  we 
find  very  few  even  of  the  leaders  in  this  philoso- 
phy who  are  perfectly  consistent  in  everything, 
in  this  nearly  all  of  them  are,  that  they  hold  to 


God.  43 

the  existence  of  a  supra-sensuous  Being,  distinct 
from  and  greater  than  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe,  and  indeed  the  ultimate  cause  of  them 
all.  By  it  have  the  glories  of  our  present 
siderial  system  been  slowly  evolved  from  a 
mass  of  vague  homogeneous  vapor,  scattered 
throughout  the  trackless  expanse  of  space.  By 
it  this  originally  formless  cloud  was  first  broken 
up  into  parts,  through  the  secondary  agency  of 
the  various  modes  of  gravitation,  which  brought 
together  two  or  more  of  its  atoms,  which  again 
became  the  nuclei  of  larger  clusters,  until  these 
at  length  gained  a  certain  definiteness  and  in- 
dependence, and  at  last,  by  virtue  of  their  ac- 
quired rotary  motion,  became  the  globes,  with 
definite  orbits  and  coherent  arrangement,  that 
we  now  consider  their  normal  condition.  The 
gases  of  the  earth,  after  being  detached  from 
their  parent  mass,  condensed,  forming  a  fiery 
liquid  nucleus ;  over  which  again  in  time  a  solid 
crust  was  developed,  and  after  the  lapse  of  ages 
was  arranged  in  the  different  layers  and  strata 
with  which  we  are  acquainted.  Then  came  the 
evolution  of  life,  by  the  action  of  the  same 
ultimate  Power,  from  the  lowest  forms  of  or- 
ganic being,  through  various  stages,  up  to  the 
lords  of  creation.  And  parallel  with  this  was 
the  development  of  mind;  and  the  further 
differentiation  of  man  into  families,  tribes, 
nations,  and  races;  and  the  growth  of  reli- 
gion, society,  government,  and  the  various  oc- 


44  The  Unity  of  the  Truth 

cupations  of  man,  as  they  exist  now,  and  still 
are  growing. 

Evolution  thus  simply  attempts  to  tell  us  how 
I  "God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  and 
how  ' '  without  him  was  not  anything  made  that 
^  was  made,"  of  which  the  Bible  merely  states 
the  fact  that.  Yet  for  doing  this  it  is  declared 
to  be  atheistic !  The  only  reason  seems  to  be 
that  strange  perversity  of  the  human  mind  de- 
scribed by  Frances  Power  Cobbe  when  she  said, 
"It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  whenever  we  find 
out  how  anything  is  done,  our  first  conclusion 
seems  to  be  that  God  did  not  do  it.  ISTo  matter 
how  wonderful,  how  beautiful,  how  infinitely 
complex  and  delicate  has  been  the  machinery 
which  has  worked,  perhaps  for  centuries,  per- 
haps for  millions  of  ages,  to  bring  about  some 
beneficent  result, — if  we  can  but  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  wheels,  its  divine  character  disappears. 
The  machinery  did  it  all.  It  would  be  alto- 
gether superfluous  to  look  further."  l 

Far  from  giving  any  sanction  to  such  a 
groundless  notion,  the  doctrine  of  Evolution 
demands  the  existence  of  God  as  a  fundamental 
postulate,  as  the  chief  corner-stone  of  the  en- 
tire system.  We  may  say  it  is  as  essential  to 
Evolution  as  it  is  to  Christianity.  And  Her- 
bert Spencer  realizes  this  to  the  full ;  one  might 
almost  think  more  fully  than  certain  Christian 

1  Darwinism  in  Morals. 


God.  45 

philosophers  and  theologians  in  the  past  have 
done.  For,  too  many  of  them  had  rather 
weakened  than  otherwise  the  validity  and  au- 
thority of  man's  belief  in  God  by  making  it 
the  declaration  of  a  special  faculty  of  the  mind, 
the  "faith  faculty,"  as  Max  Miiller  calls  it, 
which  had  a  different  kind  of  authority  from 
that  of  the  other  mental  powers;  a  mere  "in- 
spired belief ,"  or  a  "revelation,"  as  Sir  Wm. 
Hamilton  thought  it  to  be,  to  be  held  as  it 
were  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  our  mind. 

Mr.  Spencer,  on  the  contrary,  makes  our  be- 
lief to  be  of  equal  reality  and  validity  with  any 
other  declaration  of  the  soul.  He  endeavors 
to  "show  that  this  fundamental  cognition  is 
neither,  as  the  idealist  asserts,  an  illusion,  nor 
as  the  skeptic  thinks,  "of  doubtful  worth,  nor  as 
is  held  by  the  natural  realist,  an  inexplicable 
intuition ;  but  that  it  is  a  legitimate  deliverance 
of  consciousness,  elaborating  its  materials  after  ( 
the  laws  of  its  normal  action."  It  "has  a  J 
higher  warrant  than  any  other  whatever. " a  J 
Just  as  we  have  a  right  to  believe  our  eyes,  or 
ears,  or  our  reason  when  it  tells  us  that  two 
and  two  make  four,  that  a  straight  line  is  the 
shortest  distance  between  two  points,  or  that 
every  effect  must  have  a  cause,  so  we  have  the 
same  right  to  believe  our  consciousness  when  it 
tells  us  there  must  be  a  God.  This  Mr.  Spen- 

2  First  Principles. 


46  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

cer  declares  in  the  most  convincing  manner, 
insisting  on  it  as  a  fact  "  deeper  than  demon- 
stration, deeper  even  than  definite  cognition, 
deep  as  the  very  nature  of  the  mind.  Its  au- 
thority transcends  all  other  whatever."  And 
nearly  all  prominent  evolutionists  in  so  far  fully 
agree  with  him.  It  is  therefore  simple  igno- 
rance, where  it  is  not  worse,  to  maintain  that 
Evolution  involves  atheism.  It  does  just  the 
opposite.  In  as  far  as  the  existence  of  God  is 
capable  of  proof,  it  furnishes  such  proof  more 
fully  and  convincingly  than  has  ever  been  done 
before. 

And  the  very  principles  on  which  it  proceeds 
in  doing  this,  also  render  any  materialistic  con- 
V,  ceptions  of  God  utterly  impossible. 

The  ultimate  basis  upon  which  the  entire 
system  of  Evolution  is  built,  is  that  most  won- 
derful and  important  of  all  discoveries  since  the 
fact  of  gravitation  flashed  upon  Newton's  mind, 
the  law  of  the  Correlation  and  Conservation  of 
Forces,  or  more  briefly,  of  the  Persistence  of 
Force. 

Just  as  not  an  atom  of  matter  is  ever  lost  or 
destroyed,  but  ever  the  absolute  quantity  in 
the  universe  remains  the  same,  so  according  to 
this  law  not  a  particle  of  force  is  annihilated. 
It  undergoes  different  changes  of  form  and 
manifestation,  but  not  an  ounce  of  it  is  ever  lost 

» First  Principles. 


God.  47 

or  disappears.  Light,  electricity,  gravitation, 
heat,  and  all  other  forces,  are  only  so  many 
different  manifestations  of  one  substance  or  enti- 
ty behind  them  all,  and  the  sum  of  them  all ;  just 
as  rain,  clouds,  dew,  rivers,  the  billows  of  the 
ocean,  are  but  so  many  different  forms  of  the  one 
substance  water.  You  can  change  heat  into  elec- 
tricity, or  into  light,  but  you  only  change  the 
form  of  the  substance,  not  the  substance  itself, 
which  always  remains  undiminished  and  the 
same;  it  persists  in  spite  of  and  through  all 
change.  In  the  language  of  Spencer,  "The 
manifestations,  as  occurring  in  ourselves  or  out- 
side of  us,  do  not  persist ;  but  that  which  per- 
sists in  the  unknown  cause  of  these  manifesta- 
tions."4 This  is  the  "Ultimate  Keality,"  the 
"Absolute  Being,"  the  "Great  First  Cause," 
by  whom  all  things  are  and  in  whom  all  consist, 
the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forevermore, 
which  Evolution  posits  at  the  very  beginning  of 
all  knowledge,  and  of  which  Revelation  de- 
clares, "In  the  beginning  God." 

It  goes  without  saying  that  this  Being  cannot 
be  material.  No  material  substance,  as  we 
know  materiality,  would  in  any  wise  answer 
the  conditions  of  its  existence.  We  know  it 
expressly  only  as  distinct  and  different  from 
matter.  It  is  invisible,  intangible,  impondera- 
ble, and  without  dimensions.  We  can  think  of 

4  First  Principles. 


48  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

it  only  as  immaterial,  and  hence,  in  so  far.  as 
spirit.  It  is  God.  No  wonder  that  the  late 
Dr.  Youmans,  who  was  one  of  the  most  un- 
compromising evolutionists,  exclaims  that, 
through  the  law  of  the  Persistence  of  Force, 
"from  the  baldest  materiality  we  rise  at  last  to 
a  truth  of  the  spiritual  world,  of  so  exalted  an 
order  that  it  has  been  said  'to  connect  the  mind 
of  man  with  the  spirit  of  God ; '  '  6  while  Dr. 
Mayer,  the  German  discoverer  of  the  law,  de- 
clares explicitly  that ' '  there  are  three  categories 
of  existence,  matter,  force,  and  the  soul  or 
spiritual  principle. ' '  Mr.  Spencer  even,  while 
refusing  to  posit  or  deny  anything  whatever  of 
the  First  Cause,  is  yet  forced  to  confess  that, 
"were  we  compelled  to  choose  between  the 
alternatives  [of  speaking  of  it  in  terms  of  matter 
or  of  spirit],  the  latter  alternative  would  seem 
the  more  acceptable  of  the  two."  7  And  Prof. 
Fiske,  Spencer's  most  earnest  and  able  expo- 
nent in  this  country,  declares  that ' '  we  may  say 
that  God  is  Spirit,  though  we  may  not  say,  in 
the  materialistic  sense,  that  God  is  Force." 
Even  Prof.  Huxley  implies  the  same  when  he 
says  that ' '  the  materialistic  position  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  world  but  matter,  force,  and 

6  The  Correlation  and  Conservation  of  Forces. 

6  Discourse  at  the  Scientific  Reunion  at  Innsbruck. 

7  Principles  of  Psychology,  vol.  i. 

6  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.     Cf.  The  Idea 
of  God — Preface. 


God.  49 

necessity,  is  as  utterly  devoid  of  justification  as 
the  most  baseless  of  theological  dogmas, ' ' " 
though  on  this  point,  as  indeed  on  others  too, 
he  sometimes  flatly  contradicts  himself,  and 
might  also  be  quoted  to  the  opposite  effect. 
Nevertheless,  the  great  bulk  of  the  most  prom- 
inent evolutionists  openly  disavow  materialism ; 
while  even  of  those  who  do  not,  who  boldly 
profess  materialism,  as  some  do,  there  are  few 
whom  consistency  does  not  often  betray  into  lan- 
guage that  is  irreconcilable  with  their  profession. 

Indeed  so  deeply  is  the  inadequacy  of  matter 
to  account  for  the  various  phenomena  and  laws 
of  nature  felt  to  be,  that  in  order  to  retain  the 
name  even,  materialists  have  had  to  re-define  it. 
So  that  even  when  they  speak  of  it,  they  mean 
something  that  has  none  of  the  qualities  and 
attributes  of  matter  as  ordinarily  understood, 
but  that  comes  as  near  as  possible  to  what  spirit 
is  commonly  supposed  to  be.  We  may  there- 
fore unqualifiedly  accept  the  acknowledgment 
of  Prof.  Fiske,  that  "One  grand  result  of  the 
enormous  progress  achieved  during  the  past 
forty  years  in  the  analysis  of  both  physical  and 
psychical  phenomena  has  been  the  final  and 
irretrievable  overthrow  of  the  materialistic  hy- 
pothesis. " 10 

That  this  "irretrievable  overthrow"  cannot 
be  restricted  in  its  influence  to  the  sphere  of 

9  Lay  Sermons. 

10  Cosmic  Philosophy,  vol.  ii. 


50  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

natural  science  and  philosophy,  but  must  also 
extend  into  that  of  our  popular  theology,  is 
cause  for  deepest  gratification.  For  nowhere 
were  the  harmful  effects  of  materialistic  con- 
ceptions of  spiritual  facts  more  sorely  felt  than 
there.  The  long-current  "carpenter  theory" 
of  God  and  the  universe  has  received  its  death- 
blow; and  with  it,  we  trust,  all  that  formal, 
mechanical,  lifeless  ecclesiasticism  that  too  long 
usurped  the  place  of  a  living,  working,  genuine 
soul-religion. 

No  man  could  feel  himself  vitally  interested 
in,  and  intimately  related  to,  a  God  who  sat 
high  in  the  far-off  heavens;  who,  having  cre- 
ated the  world  by  his  fiat,  wound  it  up  and  set 
it  going,  then  retired  into  himself,  and  deigned 
only  from  an  infinite  distance  to  rule  and 
govern  his  handiwork.  Nor  could  rational  and 
moral  beings  truly  love  and  adore  a  celestial 
Ruler  who,  by  the  materialistic  anthropomor- 
phism that  was  current  in  the  minds  of  the 
masses,  was  represented  almost  identically  as 
we  represent  some  earthly  potentate,  only 
vaster,  more  gigantic ;  seated  on  a  white  throne, 
with  a  crown  on  his  head  and  scepter  in  his 
right  hand ;  whose  whole  anatomy,  as  it  were, 
formal  theology  mapped  out  for  us,  and  whose 
psychology  it  explained  as  minutely  as  that  of 
a  man,  describing  his  thoughts,  his  change  of 
mind,  his  feelings  and  motives,  and  professing 
to  tell  how  he  could  be  roused  to  anger,  soothed 


God.  51 

and  persuaded,  pleased  and  gratified,  just  as 
though  he  were  some  earthly  magnate. 

It  is  true,  thoughtful  men  never  soberly  held 
such  views.  They  held  to  the  spiritual  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible,  not  only  to  its  letter.  They 
knew  that  these  sought  to  impress  upon  man  as 
emphatically  and  clearly  as  language  can,  the 
grand  fact  that  "God  is  a  Spirit,"  and  as  such 
is  in  intimate  and  continuous  union  and  com- 
munion with  man.  He  is  never  far  away,  but 
ever  near  at  hand;  never  only  there,  but  ever 
here.  He  is  with  us  alway,  even  to  the  end  of 
the  world ;  and  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being. 

But  in  the  popular  mind  this  truth  was,  and 
still  is,  too  commonly  lost  sight  of.  The  sym- 
bolic language  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  pulpit 
was  taken  literally.  It  could  scarcely  be  other- 
wise. Man  thinks  by  comparison  and  analogy. 
But  so  long  as  he  knew  of  nothing  anywhere 
according  to  which  he  could  fashion  his  ideas 
of  spirit,  except  the  mind  of  man,  of  creation 
except  the  work  of  a  mechanic,  of  government 
except  the  rule  of  a  monarch,  not  to  say  tyrant, 
and  of  love  except  the  subjective  feelings  and 
impulses  of  his  own  heart,  it  was  well  nigh 
impossible  for  him  to  think  of  God  otherwise 
than  as  a  large  man,  only  less  symmetrical, 
more  unnatural. 

It  is  the  great  merit  of  Evolution,  however, 
now  to  have  given  us  the  means  of  realizing 


52  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

God  in  a  manner  more  worthy  of  his  infinite 
and  absolute  being,  freed  from  the  limitations 
of  time  and  space  to  a  degree  not  possible  be- 
fore. Nay,  it  has  done  more.  It  enables  us  to 
a  certain  extent  to  apprehend  God's  essential 
self,  without  the  need  of  pictures,  symbols,  and 
representations,  and  to  understand  more  fully 
than  ever  before,  his  methods  and  modes  of 
being  and  action,  the  exercise  of  his  power,  the 
manner  of  his  government,  the  nature  of  his 
love.  The  law  of  the  Persistence  of  Force 
brings  us  face  to  face  with  him,  the  Spirit- 
power,  "  without  whom  was  not  anything 
made  that  was  made,"  immanent  in  the  whole 
universe  and  in  every  minutest  atom  of  the 
same.  We  can  no  longer  think  of  him  as  far 
away ;  for  it  is  literally  and  really  his  whisper 
we  hear  in  the  tree  tops,  his  radiance  that  flows 
a  golden  stream  of  light  from  the  sun,  his  breath 
that  drives  the  clouds,  like  a  snowy  flock  before 
their  shepherd,  through  the  pastures  of  the 
sky. 

"  Thy  voice  is  on  the  rolling  air; 

I  hear  thee  where  the  waters  run; 
Thou  standest  in  the  rising  sun, 
And  in  the  setting  thou  art  fair. 

"  Far  off  thou  art,  but  ever  nigh; 
I  have  thee  still,  and  I  rejoice: 

I  prosper  circled  with  thy  voice; 

I  shall  not  lose  thee,  though  I  die."  n 

II  Tennyson — In  Memoriam. 


God.  53 

Forces  of  nature?  It  is  a  misnomer.  They 
are  all  the  emanations  of  the  one  Power ;  and 
that  one  is  God,  in  however  infinite  a  variety 
of  rays  and  beams  he  shines.  Laws  of  nature  ? 
There  is  but  one;  and  that  one  is  God  himself 
living  out  the  eternal  order  of  his  being. 
Whether  it  be  gravitation,  light,  heat,  elec- 
tricity; whether  it  be  in  the  vast  might  that 
forms  the  suns  and  planets,  and  floats  them 
through  the  firmament,  or  the  more  exquisite 
power  that  fashions  the  crystals  of  the  snow- 
flake  and  gently  drifts  their  starry  host  down 
through  the  air ; — everywhere,  near  and  far,  in 
everything,  Evolution  shows  us  God,  directly  and 
palpably  present.  We  no  longer  ask  for  nor 
need  any  feeble  definitions  of  him.  We  see 
him.  We  feel  him.  We  live  him.  Undefina- 
ble  because  like  only  to  himself;  incomprehensi- 
ble because  himself  comprehending  all  things. 

"  He  is  the  axis  of  the  star; 
He  is  the  sparkle  of  the  spar; 
He  is  the  heart  of  every  creature; 
He  is  the  meaning  of  each  feature; 
And  his  mind  is  the  sky, 
Than  all  it  holds  more  deep,  more  high."  12 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  already  have  ap- 
peared that  the  very  principles  of  Evolution 
preclude  that  total  agnosticism  with  which  it 
is  charged,  and  which  many  of  its  adherents 
profess.  I  maintain  that,  where  Mr.  Spencer, 

12  Emerson — Woodnotes. 


54  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Professors  Huxley,  Tyndal,  the  late  Mr.  Dar- 
win and  others,  repeatedly  declare  that  we  can 
know  nothing  further  of  the  Ultimate  Reality 
than  that  it  exists,  they  are  manifestly  incon- 
sistent, so  manifestly  that  it  seems  inexplicable 
that  they  themselves  should  not  have  discovered 
and  corrected  their  mistake.  They  all  speak 
of  the  "Great  Unknown,"  and  the  "absolutely 
Inscrutable,"  and  even  of  the  "Unknown 
Cause."  Yet  so  incompatible  is  agnosticism 
with  their  own  fundamental  principles  that 
they  all  repeatedly  show  themselves  better  than 
their  profession,  and  ascribe  various  attributes 
to  the  Unknown.  Thus  showing  that  Evolu- 
tion is  more  consistent  than  any  individual  evo- 
lutionist. 

In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Spencer,  when  speak- 
ing for  his  system  and  elaborating  its  laws,  over 
and  over  again  declares  his  Great  Unknown  to 
be  known  as  a  cause,  the  "First  Cause"  of 
everything  that  is.  Indeed  this  is  involved  in 
the  very  corner-stone  of  his  whole  system,  the 
principle  of  the  Persistence  of  Force.  The  real 
Substance  that  persists  beneath  and  behind  all 
appearances  is  known  to  us  as  a  cause,  or  not 
at  all.  We  know  it  not  otherwise  than  as  a 
cause  existing.  Hence,  surely,  so  far  at  least 
it  is  not  unknown,  but  very  positively  known. 

But  Mr.  Spencer  himself  goes  still  further. 
As  if  to  leave  no  doubt  in  our  minds  that  this 
First  Cause  is  he  of  whom  Revelation  says,  ' '  In 


God.  55 

the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,"  he  proceeds  to  define  it13  as  "Absolute 
Being,"  as  a  power  "which  must  be  in  every 
sense  perfect,  complete,  total,"  and  "including 
within  itself  all  power,  and  transcending  all 
law. ' '  This  is  in  fact  so  necessarily  implied  in 
the  law  mentioned  before,  that  Mr.  Spencer 
could  not  but  acknowledge  it.  Nor  can  or  does 
he  deny  this  almighty  Being  the  further  divine 
attributes  of  eternity  and  omnipresence.  For 
they  are  inevitably  involved  in  the  Ultimate 
Reality,  of  which,  as  he  says,14  "neither  begin- 
ing  nor  end  can  be  conceived,"  and  which  must 
be  thought  of  as  omnipresent,  because  ' '  though 
omnipresence  is  unthinkable,  yet,  as  experience 
discloses  no  bounds  to  the  diffusion  of  phenom- 
ena, we  are  unable  to  think  of  limits  to  the 
presence  of  this  power"  that  is  the  cause  of 
them  all,  that  is 

"  All  things,  and  yet  no  Thing, 
The  fair  and  the  unfair; 
He  has  nor  foot,  nor  wing, 
And  yet  is  everywhere." 

' '  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit  ?  or  whither 
shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence?  If  I  ascend  up 
into  heaven,  thou  art  there :  if  I  make  my  bed 
in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there.  If  I  take  the 
wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  utter- 

13  First  Principles. 
"  Ibid. 


56  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

most  parts  of  the  sea ;  even  there  shall  thy  hand 
lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If 
I  say,  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me ;  even 
the  night  shall  be  light  about  me.  Yea,  the 
darkness  hideth  not  from  thee:  but  the  night 
shineth  as  the  day:  the  darkness  and  the  light 
are  both  alike  to  thee." 

What,  therefore,  the  principles  of  Evolution 
are  admitted  to  teach  by  the  founders  of  that 
philosophy  themselves,  is  in  so  far  in  the  most 
intimate  agreement  with  the  doctrines  of  re- 
vealed religion.  They  both  declare  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Supreme  Being,  who  is  not  ma- 
terial; both  teach  that  he  made  all  things,  and 
is  ever  active  in  sustaining  them;  that  he  is 
infinite  and  absolute,  almighty,  pmnipresent, 
and  eternal.  So  far  the  only  difference  between 
the  two  is  a  difference  of  names.  The  one  calls 
the  Absolute  Being  God,  the  other  calls  him 
the  Great  Unknown.  Surely  scarce  a  difference 
worth  quarrelling  about.  For  whatever  his 
name,  the  ultimate  reality  remains ;  both  mean 
the  same  divine  Being;  not  unknown,  but  only 
uncomprehended ;  not  fully  known,  but  yet 
apprehended.  Both  can  worship  him  in  Low- 
ell's words, 

"  O  Power,  more  near  iny  life  than  life  itself 
(Or  what  seems  life  to  us  in  sense  immured), 
Even  as  the  roots,  shut  in  the  darksome  earth, 
Share  in  the  tree-top's  joyance,  and  conceive 
Of  sunshine  and  wide  air  and  winged  things 
By  sympathy  of  nature,  so  do  I 


God.  57 

Have  evidence  of  tliee  so  far  above 

Yet  in  and  of  me.    Rather  thou  the  root 

Invisibly  sustaining,  hid  in  light, 

Not  darkness,  or  in  darkness  made  by  us."  u 

Further  than  this,  while  the  teachings  of  our 
religion  declare  that  God  made  the  world,  a 
statement  over  which  the  feeble  mind  of  man 
long  was  perplexed,  being  unable  to  realize  it, 
Evolution  throws  a  stream  of  light  upon  it  by 
saying,  Yes,  he  made  it,  by  operating  thus 
through  gravitation,  so  through  heat,  and  thus 
through  the  different  chemical  forces ;  through 
the  same  agencies,  and  according  to  the  same 
order  of  development,  that  we  now  see  going 
on  in  the  realms  of  astronomy,  the  depths  of 
stellar  space;  of  geology,  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth;  of  botany,  in  every  field  and  forest 
around  us;  and  of  physiology,  in  the  depart- 
ment of  animal  life  without  us  and  within. 
Not  by  finite  means  such  as  man  must  use,  nor 
with  hands  and  feet,  feeble  tools  and  instru- 
ments; but  in  ways  more  worthy  of  an  uncon- 
ditioned and  unlimited  Being,  and  according 
to  a  method  more  divine  by  far. 

Even  if  we  should  not  agree  with  these  state- 
ments, we  surely  cannot  say  that  they  deny  or 
contradict  our  religion.  As  little  as  Evolution 
is  atheistic,  so  little  is  it  agnostic  as  far  as  these 
are  concerned.  This  is  so  very  evident  that  I 
cannot  think  that  a  man  like  Herbert  Spencer 

15  The  Cathedral. 


58  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

should  not  have  seen  it.  When  he  so  strenu- 
ously affirms  that  we  can  know  nothing  what- 
ever about  the  First  Cause,  he  must  use  the 
words  "know  "  and  "knowledge"  in  the  lim- 
ited sense  in  which  he  often  employs  them  as 
applying  only  to  what  is  positively  definable, 
with  mathematical  precision,  and  to  what  can 
be  pictured  to  the  mind  adequately,  immedi- 
ately, without  the  aid  of  any  symbols  of 
thought,  in  other  words,  what  is  fully  compre- 
hensible.16 In  this  sense,  of  course,  we  cannot 
know  God.  And  whatever  some  theologians 
may  have  done,  the  Bible  certainly  never 
claimed  such  knowledge  for  man,  but  continu- 
ally reminds  him  that  God's  ways  are  not  our 
ways,  that  no  man  can  by  searching  find  him 
out,  that  the  finite  can  never  hope  to  compre- 
hend the  infinite ;  so  that  none  of  its  names  and 
comparisons  are  ever  to  be  taken  as  adequate 
descriptions,  and  none  of  its  symbolical  terms 
and  phrases  as  literal  representations  or  ex- 
haustive explanations.  All  too  commonly,  how- 
ever, has  this  been  utterly  disregarded,  to  the 
degradation  of  true  religion,  the  generation  of 
unbelief  and  scorn,  and  the  mighty  encourage- 
ment of  agnosticism  and  atheism. 

Let  us  bear  this  in  mind  especially  in  our 
further  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  the  divine 
Being.  For  the  human  heart  cannot  rest  con- 

16  Of.  Fiske— The  Idea  of  God— Preface. 


God.  59 

tent  with  those  attributes  of  God  we  have 
already  found.  They  alone  would  do  no  more 
than  lead  it  into  the  ever-disappointing,  finally 
fatal,  quicksands  of  pantheism.  As  a  late  theo- 
logian, from  whom  I  have  quoted  before,  says, 
"  If  I  cannot  connect  it  (the  first  cause)  with 
intelligence  and  with  personality,  we  have  not 
advanced  a  step  in  satisfying  the  demands  of 
religion;"  "  but  not  with  human  intelligence 
and  personality. 

Just  here,  in  the  attempt  to  make  this  con- 
nection, has  been  the  cause  of  all  the  idolatry 
and  ideolatry,  the  many  superstitions  and  mate- 
rialistic forms  of  anthropomorphism,  that  have 
in  the  past  so  often  stifled  true  religion.  And 
it  is  probably  therefore  that  not  only  Mr.  Spen- 
cer, Matthew  Arnold,  and  such  as  they,  but 
many  devout  theologians  as  well,  have  persist- 
ently shrunk  from  attributing  personality  to 
God.  From  the  current  conceptions  of  person- 
ality I  shrink  as  much  as  they.  I  as  earnestly 
deplore  the  impiety  of  ascribing  to  God  an  in- 
telligence and  will,  feelings,  purposes,  thoughts, 
and  motives  such  as  are  the  results  of  human 
limitations,  and  are  totally  incompatible  with 
the  idea  of  absolute  and  infinite  Being.  I 
would  not  for  a  moment  venture  the  presumptu- 
ous thought  that  God  is  a  person  merely  as  we 
are  persons.  And  in  using  the  word,  I  do  so 

17  Dimait— The  Theistac  Argument. 


60  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

only  because  I  do  not  find  any  other  term  by 
which  we  could  better  express  an  essential  fact 
that  necessarily  enters  into  our  conception  of 
God;  a  fact  which  we  cannot  define  or  explain 
even  to  ourselves,  and  of  which  the  expression 
in  words  must  therefore  be  only  very  partial 
and  inadequate ;  but  a  fact  of  which  as  a  fact 
we  are  as  certain  and  sure  as  of  any  other  con- 
tained in  human  consciousness,  and  which  is 
not  contradicted  but  rather  sustained  by  Evo- 
lution. 

As  applying  to  man  we  may  accept  either  or 
both  of  the  two  ktest  and  best  definitions  of 
personality  offered.  According  to  Dr.  Geo. 
P.  Fisher,  ' '  The  essential  characteristics  of  per- 
sonality are  self-consciousness  and  self-deter- 
mination," 18  which  Dr.  Samuel  Harris  narrows 
down  a  little,  so  that  he  thinks  "A  person  is  a 
being  conscious  of  self,  subsisting  in  individu- 
ality and  identity,  and  endowed  with  intuitive 
reason,  rational  sensibility  and  free-will." " 
The  consistent  evolutionist  would,  however, 
probably  hesitate  to  apply  either  of  these  un- 
qualifiedly to  God.  And  I  too  recognize  with 
Mr.  Spencer  not  only  the  possibility  of  "a  mode 
of  being  as  much  transcending  intelligence  and 
will  as  these  transcend  mechanical  motion," 
but  the  necessity  of  regarding  the  divine,  from 
what  we  already  know  of  it,  as  such  a  mode  of 

18  The  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief. 

19  The  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism. 


God.  61 

being.  All  that  we  are  warranted  in  affirming 
of  it,  and  which,  I  think,  will  be  deemed  fully 
satisfactory  to  the  humble  heart,  is  this: 
Though  we  can  discern  no  apparent  likeness 
between  God's  nature  and  man's  because  the 
two  are  incapable  of  comparison,  we  can  and 
do  discern  a  likeness  between  his  and  our 
acts  in  their  results.  When  I  am  conscious, 
for  example,  in  lifting  a  stone,  of  exert- 
ing force  by  an  exercise  of  will,  I  may  indeed, 
and  do,  at  once  reason  that,  when  my  neighbor 
lifts  a  stone,  he  too  must  exercise  his  will  in 
order  to  exert  the  force ;  but  I  may  not  posi- 
tively say  that  all  manifestations  of  force,  in 
the  earthquake,  the  tempest,  the  fire,  must 
likewise  be  the  result  of  will-power.  As  far  as 
known  to  me  will  exists  only  under  certain  con- 
ditions and  in  certain  relations,  such  as  God 
must  be  wholly  independent  of.  But  I  may 
say  that  God  can  and  does  exercise  force  such 
as  I  can  only  exercise  by  an  exertion  of  the 
will,  and  that  he  can  and  does  do  infinitely 
more  and  greater  things  than  I  can.  What  is 
will-power  in  me,  is  power  still  in  him,  but 
may  be  something  infinitely  greater,  more 
simple  and  perfect,  than  that  limited  form  of  it 
which  is  exerted  by  the  human  will. 

So  also  with  intelligence  and  with  the  moral 
attributes,  which  belong  to  the  idea  of  person- 
ality. When  another  man,  with  like  constitu- 
tion and  in  like  circumstances  as  mine,  arranges 


62  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

his  deeds  in  such  an  order  and  combination  as 
to  bring  about  a  certain  end  intended,  I  say  he 
is  an  intelligent  being.  I  reason  from  myself, 
and  have  a  right  to  do  so  in  such  a  case.  But 
even  though  Evolution  shows  me  more  clearly 
and  beautifully  than  ever  was  known  before 
how  all  forces  and  objects  and  events  in  the 
whole  universe  are  adjusted  and  adapted  to  one 
another  in  a  sublime  harmony,  and  bring  forth 
definite  results,  I  have  no  right  to  say  that 
thereby  God's  intelligence  is  proved.  Intelli- 
gence is  a  term  of  limitation  and  imperfection. 
It  is  altogether  a  human  quality,  determined 
by  human  conditions,  and  bringing  about  re- 
sults by  human  processes  of  reasoning,  choice, 
and  volition.  In  God  there  may  be  nothing 
at  all  analogous  to  such  mental  processes. 
There  is  probably  no  process  at  all;  but  simply 
the  divine  Being  immediately,  spontaneously, 
continuously  manifesting  itself  in  this  wise, 
without  the  need  of  any  such  means  as  are  the 
intellect  and  will  in  man.  All  I  may,  therefore, 
affirm  is  that  God  produces  results  similar  to 
those  I  can  produce  only  by  the  laborious  ex- 
ercise of  various  faculties  of  mind,  but  which 
he  may  bring  to  pass  spontaneously  and  im- 
mediately. 

I  may  indeed  call  certain  combinations  of 
deeds  intelligent  and  wise,  others  righteous  and 
good ;  and  can  then  say  that  all  God's  actions 
are  wise  and  good.  But  I  cannot  apply  those 


God.  63 

terms  to  himself,  lest  I  thereby  misconceive  and 
degrade  his  infinite  and  absolute  being.  That 
which  produces  all  that  is  produced  is  probably 
far  more  than  wisdom  and  goodness.  As  the 
indivisible  God,  immediately  acting,  he  com- 
prehends all  partial  conceptions  under  him.  In 
the  divine  nature  what  are  intelligence,  will, 
goodness,  but  one  and  the  same,  the  God-spirit, 
not  thinking,  designing,  willing,  feeling,  act- 
ing, but  simply  being  himself,  manifesting  him- 
self according  to  the  eternal  order  of  his  being  ? 

"  '  Yes,  write  it  in  the  rock!'     Saint  Bernard  said, 
'  Grave  it  on  brass  with  adamantine  pen! 
Tis  God  himself  becomes  apparent,  when 
God's  wisdom  and  God's  goodness  are  displayed.'  "  20 

Just  as  the  eternal  immanence  of  God's  self 
is  that  which  on  the  one  hand  is  manifested  as 
gravitation,  whose  very  existence  constitutes 
the  law  which  governs  all  nature,  so  that  same 
divine  immanence  manifesting  itself  on  the 
other  hand  in  the  spiritual  realm,  may  itself 
constitute  by  its  very  presence,  the  laws  of 
intelligence  and  morality,  of  Truth,  Beauty, 
and  Goodness,  according  to  which  all  spirit  is 
governed.  Who  knows  but  we  shall  yet  realize 
Emerson's  profound  prophecy,  and  some  day 
"shall  see  the  identity  of  the  law  of  gravitation 
with  purity  of  heart ;  and  ....  that  the 
Ought,  that  Duty,  is  one  thing  with  Science, 

2°  Matthew  Arnold— The  Divinity. 


64  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

with  Beauty,  and  with  Joy. "  3l  Aye,  who  would 
not  rejoice  if,  when  no  longer  seeing  4 '  through 
a  glass  darkly,"  but  knowing  even  as  also  we 
are  known,  we  should  realize  that  goodness  and 
wisdom,  and  all  other  such  terms,  are  but 
names,  like  red,  yellow,  and  blue,  of  a  few  re- 
flected rays  of  the  ineffable  Light  of  the  world, 
while  the  eternal  Source  thereof  is  himself 
different  from  each  and  infinitely  more  than 
the  sum  of  them  all? 

This  certainly  would  not  detract  from  the 
divine  personality.  That  which  is  alone  essen- 
tial to  our  being  able  to  love  God,  to  serve  and 
obey  him,  and  to  address  him  as  Thou,  yea, 
even  as  Abba,  our  Father,  is  not  that  we  con- 
ceive him  as  thinking,  feeling,  and  willing,  but 
that  we  know  him  as  one  being,  and  as  abso- 
lutely free  and  self -determining  spirit. 

And  these  qualities  no  evolutionist  can  con- 
sistently deny.  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  thy 
God  is  one  God!"  was  no  more  positively  and 
clearly  revealed  to  the  Hebrews  through  Moses, 
than  it  is  reiterated  to  us  through  Evolution. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  this  whole  philosophy 
is  based  on  the  discovery  of  the  Persistence  of 
Force;  and  the  essential  thing  in  that  discovery 
is  nothing  less  than  the  oneness  of  the  Sub- 
stance, the  individual  identity  of  that  supra- 
sensuous,  non- material  Being,  of  which  all 

81  Address  before  Senior  Class  in  Divinity  College. 


God.  65 

phenomena  are  but  so  many  varied  manifesta- 
tions. "Whether  in  condensing  the  nebula  or 
distilling  the  dew,  whether  in  guiding  the  herds 
of  planets  through  space,  or  directing  the 
swarms  of  molecules  in  the  air,  it  is  one  and 
"the  selfsame  Spirit  that  worketh  all  in  all." 
There  is  one  Power  in  the  infinite  variety  of 
manifestations.  There  is  one  God  who  rules 
all  and  whom  all  must  obey.  Unity  in  the 
midst  of  diversity;  no  conflict  of  plans  or  agen- 
cies ;  absolute  harmony ;  universal  co-operation. 
This  is  what  Evolution  so  positively  declares 
and  reveals  to  us,  and  this  is  whereby  it  has 
forever  made  pantheism  impossible. 

That  this  "one  God  and  Father  of  us  all"  is 
a  self -determining  Power  follows  necessarily 
from  the  fact  that  he  is  absolute,  almighty,  and 
omnipresent.  He  manifests  himself  not  as 
confusion,  but  as  order.  He  produces  good  and 
wise  results.  Some  determination,  if  so  we  must 
call  it,  is  plainly  implied  in  this.  If  it  were  a 
determination  imposed  by  another,  God  were 
not  absolute.  Whatever  determination  there  is 
must  therefore  be  God's  own,  perfectly  free,  en- 
tirely independent,  from  within,  not  from  with- 
out. He  is  the  only  First  Cause.  He  is  himself 
the  determination  of  himself  and  of  all  things. 

Only  of  such  a  Being  can  love  be  predicated. 
Though  here  we  must  again  take  heed  not  to 
be  misled  by  this  word  into  the  baldest  anthro- 
pomorphism. God's  love  cannot  be  the  same 


66  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

as  our  love.  The  term  is  only  used  as  a  partial, 
approximate  designation.  In  man  its  chief 
characteristics  are  subjective.  Of  God's  sub- 
jective condition  we  know  nothing  whatever. 
But  when  I  love  I  so  act  as  to  produce  bene- 
ficent results  to  the  object  of  my  love.  There- 
fore, when  I  see  beneficence  all  around,  pro- 
duced everywhere  by  the  divine  Power,  I 
reason  that  this  Power  is  likewise  moved  by 
love.  As  absolute,  however,  he  cannot  be 
moved  at  all.  Of  feelings,  intentions,  im- 
pulses in  him  we  know  nothing.  All  I  can 
legitimately  mean,  therefore,  is  that  God  is  a 
Being  who  produces  beneficent  results.  And 
as  it  appears  that  in  the  largest  sense  all  his 
effects  are  such,  we  must  conclude  that  the 
divine  nature  is  such  as  invariably  to  result  in 
beneficence ;  beneficence  is  the  expression  of  his 
essential  being.  In  this  sense  then  "God  is 
love;"  and  Dr.  Samuel  Harris  is  certainly 
right  when  he  declares  that ' '  Mr.  Spencer  de- 
monstrates that  the  law  of  love  is  the  ultimate 
ground  of  the  law  of  nature  and  the  reign  of 
love  its  ultimate  issue  and  end.  He  already 
knows  the  unknowable  to  be  Power.  Here  he 
demonstrates  that  it  is  Love;  and  therefore 
God:  for  God  is  love."22 

Beneficence  is  the  order,  principle,  law  of 
God's  manifestation ;  but  whether  as  a  princi- 

82  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism. 


God.  67 

pie  it  is  at  all  akin  to  the  sentiment  of  love  as 
known  in  man,  we  cannot  know.  All  we  do 
know  is  that,  unlike  man's  love,  the  love  of 
God  abideth,  is  eternal  and  infinite,  perfect 
and  absolute  as  himself;  because  it  is  himself. 
And  as  all  other  ethical  principles  are  in  the 
last  place  included  under  this  and  resolvable 
into  it,  Right,  Truth,  Goodness,  Beauty  must 
also  be  regarded  as  so  many  aspects  of  the  order 
of  divine  manifestation,  and  as  such  as  real, 
universal,  and  eternal  principles  of  being  im- 
manent in  the  world  with  God,  in  God.  Are 
they  not  the  divine  Expression,  Logos,  Word 
that  was  "in  the  beginning,"  that  was  with 
God,  that  was  God?  This  is  their  warrant. 
This  gives  them  their  absolute  and  their  sacred 
character. 

It  will  have  become  apparent  ere  now  that 
this  conception  of  God  is  far  different  from  the 
one  of  popular  theology.  In  place  of  a  Creator 
working  at  the  world  from  the  outside,  it  shows 
us  an  inherent,  all-pervasive  Power,  permeat- 
ing all  things,  active  everywhere,  constantly 
unfolding  himself  according  to  the  eternal  order 
of  his  own  being.  Instead  of  an  arbitrary 
Lawgiver  imposing  his  decrees  upon  the  world, 
or  himself  subject  to  moral  laws  existing  some- 
where or  other  in  the  universe,  we  have  a  spir- 
itual Substance,  whose  own  constitution  and 
mode  of  being  are  the  eternal  law  of  both 
material  and  spiritual  existence,  determining 


68  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  "stream  of  tendency"  that  is  ever  "making 
for  righteousness"  and  happiness,  moulding  all 
things  great  and  small  according  to  the  princi- 
ples of  his  own  being.  "We  have  a  God  whom 
indeed  we  cannot  picture  as  seated  on  a  throne, 
invested  with  human  form  and  attributes ;  but 
whom  we  can  realize  as  being  with  us  "alway 
even  to  the  end  of  the  world, ' '  as  immediately 
present  everywhere,  as  one  in  whom  indeed 
and  in  truth  we  can  "live  and  move  and  have 
our  being;"  a  Spirit-principle  who  can  actually 
live  in  us,  whom  we  can  "put  on,"  on  whom 
as  a  Foundation  we  can  build  up  ourselves  unto 
the  ideal  set  before  us.  A  God  whom  we  can 
trust,  because  he  is  "the  same  yesterday,  to- 
day and  forevermore,"  "in  whom  is  no  varia- 
bleness nor  shadow  of  turning,"  the  one  true 
God  blessed  forevermore.  Whom  we  can  love 
because  in  all  his  manifestations  not  fickle  and 
imperfect  human  sentiment  can  be  seen,  but  a 
perpetual  outflow  of  purest  beneficence  ever  the 
same.  Whom  we  can  serve,  because  we  know 
what  service  of  him  means  and  whither  it 
tends.  A  God  who  in  the  truest  sense  is  our 
Father,  our  Friend,  and  our  Saviour.  A  God 
who  is  a  God,  and  not  a  man. 


III. 
PROVIDENCE 


"Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?  and  one  of 
them  shall  not  fall  to  the  ground  without  your  Father. 
But  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered." 

(MATTH.  10:  29,  30.) 

"And  we  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God." 

(ROM.  8:  28.) 

"The  things  and  events  of  the  world  do  not  exist  or 
occur  blindly  or  irrrelevantly,  but  all,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  time,  and  throughout  the  farthest  sweep  of 
illimitable  space,  are  connected  together  as  the  orderly 
manifestations  of  a  divine  Power,  and  .  .  this  divine 
Power  is  something  outside  of  ourselves,  and  upon  it  our 
own  existence  from  moment  to  moment  depends." 

(JOHN  FISKE — Address  at  Farewell  Dinner  to  H.  Spencer.) 

"  The  law  wnicn  moves  to  righteousness, 
Which  none  at  last  can  turn  aside  or  stay; 
The  heart  of  it  is  love,  the  end  of  it 
\    Is  peace  and  consummation  sweet.     Obey!" 

(EDWIN  ARNOLD—  The  Light  of  Asia.) 

"This  is,  in  fact,  the  great  miracle  of  Providence,  that 
no  miracles  are  needed  to  accomplish  its  purposes." 

(JEREMY  TAYLOR— Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm.) 

"The  things  that  befall  thee  accept  as  well- wrought, 
knowing  that  without  God  nothing  occurs." 

(The  Teaching  of  the  2'welve  Apostles.) 


III. 

PROVIDENCE. 

THE  old  heathenish  view  of  God  as  a  vast 
man  enthroned  somewhere  in  space,  and  ruling, 
or  rather  playing  with  the  earth  from  there, 
alone  made  possible  the  old  theory  of  Provi- 
dence. 

According  to  this,  the  physical  universe  is 
governed  by  a  set  of  "laws  of  nature,"  imposed 
upon  it  at  the  creation.  But  these  laws  are 
rather  sovereign  decrees  than  anything  else. 
They  are  not  inherent  in  the  nature  of  things. 
They  have  no  vital  connection.  They  can  be 
amended,  annulled,  suspended,  and  interfered 
with  at  the  sweet  will  of  the  Lawgiver.  And 
man  is  not  subject  to  them  at  all  in  any  real 
and  definite  sense;  but  directly  and  immedi- 
ately dependent  upon  the  good  graces  of  an  arbi- 
trary Ruler,  who  to  favor  one  will  keep  fire 
from  burning,  water  from  wetting,  cold  from 
freezing;  will  stay  the  action  of  gravitation,  or 
break  the  eternal  chain  of  causality;  will  do 
this  at  one  place  without  its  affecting  the  law 
in  any  other,  and  for  one  person  without  regard 
to  all  the  rest  of  mankind  and  of  the  universe. 
Everything  is  governed,  if  not  by  chance,  yet 
by  whim.  God  has  indeed  a  general  plan  and 


72  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

purpose,  something  like  a  chess  player  behind 
his  board.  But,  like  the  latter,  he  changes 
the  details,  at  least,  of  his  plan  to  meet  par- 
ticular contingencies  that  constantly  arise. 

Not  only  is  this  view  entirely  at  variance 
with  the  principles  of  true  religion  as  revealed 
in  the  Bible ;  but  it  is  harmful  in  every  respect, 
as  all  untruth  must  be.  It  makes  existence 
uncertain  and  precarious,  subject  to  indefinite 
interference  and  interposition  from  without.  It 
destroys  true  piety  and  faith  in  the  life  and 
conduct  of  men,  tending  to  make  them  careless 
and  derelict.  And  too  often  it  is  made  but  a 
presumptuous  excuse  for  ignorance,  laziness, 
and  sinful  neglect  of  duty ;  even  as  it  encourages 
self -righteousness,  vanity,  and  self-conceit,  from 
which  alone  the  doctrine  can  have  sprung. 

"  Scratched  by  a  fall,  with  moans 
As  children  of  a  weak  age 

Lend  life  to  the  dumb  stones 
Whereon  to  vent  their  rage, 
And  bend  their  little  fists  and  rate  the  senseless  ground; 

So,  loath  to  suffer  mute, 
We,  peopling  the  void  air, 

Make  Gods  to  whom  to  impute 
The  ills  we  ought  to  bear; 
With  God  and  Fate  to  rail  at,  suffering  easily!"  J 

What  is  it,  for  instance,  but  self-conceit 
which  animates  the  devout  deacon, — who  is  also 
somewhat  interested  in  certain  railway  stock — 

1  Matthew  Arnold — Empedocles  on  Etna. 


Providence.  73 

when  he  comes  to  me  and  exclaims,  "Do  you 
know  the  A.  B.  C.  road  has  gone  up?  Yes,  sir, 
and  I  had  ten  thousand  and  more  invested  in 
it ;  but  most  providentially  I  got  wind  of  how 
matters  were  going,  and  succeeded  in  selling  out 
not  more  than  an  hour  before  the  news  became 
generally  known,  and  the  stock  was  not  worth 
a  cent  any  more!"  That  deacon  plainly  im- 
agines himself  a  special  favorite  of  Providence ; 
and  that  Providence  actually  helped  him  cheat 
his  neighbor!  His  faith  will  make  him  bolder 
in  his  speculations  and  encourage  him  to  cheat 
again. 

Not  for  a  moment  would  I  deny  that  there 
was  a  Providence  in  the  case.  But  there  was 
no  interference  or  interposition.  There  was  no 
special  favor  shown  the  deacon  by  God,  much 
rather  the  contrary.  There  had  been  an  op- 
portunity given  him  to  show  forth  true  honesty 
and  integrity;  he  refused  to  take  it;  he  made  it 
a  means  for  strengthening  himself  in  dishonesty; 
and  by  so  much  it  will  hasten  on  the  penalty 
for  breaking  a  moral  law  that  will  come  upon 
him.  The  evil  lies  in  the  deacon's  wrong  in- 
terpretation of  the  circumstance,  that  is,  in  his 
altogether  erroneous  and  immoral  idea  of  Provi- 
dence. He  presumptuously  attributed  a  purpose 
to  God  for  which  there  was  no  ground  but  his 
own  self-conceit  and  corrupt  character.  And 
that  is  the  great  mistake  and  evil  of  the  whole 
popular  conception  of  Providence,  over  and 


74  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

above  the  wrong  views  of  divine  being  and 
methods  which  it  involves. 

Equally  irreligious  and  immoral  is  the  false 
trust  in  Providence  resultant / from  such  a  view. 
The  ignorant  religionists  who  refuse  to  put  up 
lightning-rods,  and  think  it  wrong  to  be  vac- 
cinated, are  only  consistent  in  their  error.  But 
they  are  not  more  pious  than  others.  A  min- 
ister of  the  gospel  refused  positively  to  have 
any  medicine  administered  to  his  child  which 
wTas  sick.  "It  is  in  the  hands  of  Providence, ' ' 
he  said.  And  men  were  found  to  admire  and 
commend  his  "simple  and  childlike  trust!" 
"It  is  a  visitation  of  Providence,"  solemnly  ex- 
claimed another,  two  members  of  whose  family 
had  already  died  of  typhoid  fever,  while  a  third 
was  even  then  suffering  from  diphtheria ;  "It  is 
a  visitation  of  Providence,  and  I  humbly  bow 
before  his  will!"  But  he  did  not  repair  the 
leak  in  his  drain -pipe  that  had  undermined  bis 
cellar  and  yard,  and  made  it  a  morass  of  filth 
and  poisonous  corruption. 

It  is  such  cases  as  these,  still  only  too  plenti- 
ful, and  too  leniently  regarded,  that  have  set 
many  men  against  the  whole  doctrine  of  Provi- 
dence, of  which  they  are  nothing  but  a  gross 
perversion.  They  recognize  the  untruth  in  such 
views,  and  that  they  work  incalculable  harm  in 
the  world.  Particularly  is  Providence  as  thus 
represented  combated  and  ridiculed  by  scien- 
tists, who  see  how  it  would  destroy  all  coher- 


Providence.  75 

ence  in  the  universe,  and  deny  that  sublime 
unity  of  nature  which  is  more  and  more  being 
revealed  by  the  researches  and  discoveries  that 
are  being  made  in  every  sphere  of  existence, 
and  which  Evolution  especially  has  demonstrated 
and  illustrated  to  an  extent  little  dreamed  of  as 
possible  a  few  years  ago. 

More  and  more  clearly  is  it  being  shown  that 
any  view  which  loses  sight  of  the  unity,  con- 
tinuity, and  regular  order  manifested  in  the 
world,  must  be  erroneous,  and  can  only  detract 
from  the  dignity  and  perfection  of  him  of  whose 
essential  being  these  qualities  are  the  beautiful 
expression.  Thoughtful  men  recognize  the  truth 
expressed  by  Mr.  Spencer,  that ' '  Irregularity  j 
of  method  is  a  mark  of  weakness.  Uniformity  j 
of  method  is  a  mark  of  strength.  Continual 
interposition  to  alter  a  prearranged  set  of  ac- 
tions, implies  defective  arrangement  in  those 
actions.  The  maintenance  of  those  actions,  and 
the  working  out  by  them  of  the  highest  results, 
implies  completeness  of  arrangement.  If  hu- 
man workmen,  whose  machines  as  at  first  con- 
structed require  perpetual  adjustment,  show 
their  increasing  skill  by  making  their  machines 
self-adjusting;  then,  those  who  figure  to  them- 
selves the  production  of  the  world  and  its  in- 
habitants by  a  'Great  Artificer,'  must  admit 
that  the  achievement  of  this  end  by  a  persist- 
ent process,  adapted  to  all  contingencies,  im- 
plies greater  skill  than  its  achievement  by  the 


76  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

process  of  meeting  the  contingencies  as  they 
severally  arise."  a 

It  is  plain  that,  to  be  believed  by  all,  a  doc- 
trine must  be  worthy  of  belief.  And  in  order 
to  this,  the  doctrine  of  Providence  must  not 
involve  any  impious  imputation  of  motives  and 
purposes  to  God  of  which  we  can  know  noth- 
ing. It  must  not  furnish  any  ground  or  excuse 
for  self-righteousness,  ignorance,  and  irreligion 
in  man.  Nor,  finally,  must  it  belittle  the 
greatness  and  perfection  of  God.  It  must  be 
true  to  known  facts ;  consistent  with  itself ;  and 
helpful  to  man.  No  other  doctrine  is  worthy  of 
belief;  no  other  will  be  accepted  by  the  grow- 
ing intelligence  of  the  times;  and  none  other 
finds  any  warrant  in  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity or  of  Evolution. 

The  true  Christian  doctrine  which  meets  all 
these  requirements  fully  is  a  necessary  corollary 
from  the  conception  of  God  we  arrived  at  in 
the  preceding  Study ;  and  as  such,  religion  and 
Evolution  are  not  only  at  one  with  reference  to 
it,  but  the  teachings  of  the  latter  explain  and 
sustain  those  of  the  former  to  the  fullest  extent 
possible.  Recognizing  God,  not  as  a  Being 
outside  of  the  world  and  ruling  it  from  without 
in  an  arbitrary,  lawless  manner,  but  as  a  spir- 
itual Power,  immanent  in  the  universe,  and 
manifesting  himself  through  "an  ever-present 

2  Principles  of  Biology,  vol.  i. 


Providence.  77 

and  all-pervading  divine  energy,"  as  Prof.  Le 
Conte  calls  the  forces  of  nature,  according  to  a 
uniform  method,  "universal  because  he  is  om- 
nipresent, invariable  because  he  is  unchange- 
able," 3  we  see  Providence  to  be  nothing  but 
God  unfolding  himself;  the  expression  in  the 
world  of  his  inherent  nature;  subordinating, 
subjecting  all  things  and  occurrences  thereto ; 
bringing  all  into  conformity  with  himself. 
This  view  was  hinted  at  by  Prof.  Fiske  at  the 
farewell  banquet  tendered  to  Mr.  Spencer  at 
New  York  on  the  eve  of  his  leaving  this  country 
after  his  too  brief  visit,  when  he  said:  "The 
things  and  events  of  the  world  do  not  exist  or 
occur  blindly  or  irrelevantly,  but  all,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  time,  and  throughout 
the  furthest  sweep  of  illimitable  space,  are  con- 
nected together  as  the  orderly  manifestations 
of  a  divine  power,  and  this  divine  power  is 
something  outside  of  ourselves,  and  upon  it  our 
own  existence  from  moment  to  moment  de- 
pends." 

There  is  nothing  unreliable,  fickle,  uncertain, 
about  such  a  Providence;  nothing  irregular  or 
incoherent  in  his  methods ;  in  him  is  ' '  no  varia- 
bleness neither  shadow  of  turning."  The  very 
same  order  by  which  the  first  night  followed 
the  first  day,  still  persists,  ever  has  persisted, 
and  ever  will ;  providentially  so  ordered  that 

8  Princeton  Review,  November,  1878. 


78  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

all  earthly  creatures  may  positively  reckon  on 
it,  and  conform  their  lives  and  works  accord- 
ingly; never  arbitrarily  altered  or  suspended 
even  for  a  single  hour,  to  suit  the  short-sighted 
wishes  of  this  one  or  that  one  who  might  have 
refused  to  co-ordinate  his  little  affairs  with  it ; 
but  always  wisely  and  beneficently  maintained 
for  the  comfort  and  undisturbed  existence  of 
millions  of  worlds  above,  and  myriads  of  lives 
in  the  plant  and  insect  and  animal  world  be- 
low. The  identical  order  according  to  which 
bloom  the  twinkling  "flowers  of  the  sky,"  and 
move  the  sun  and  moon  and  planets,  and  re- 
mains stable  the  foundation  of  earth,  on  which 
all  life  depends,  has  been  preserved  from  ever- 
lasting, nor  consented  to  be  changed  because, 
forsooth,  some  heedless  creature  might  have 
walked  too  near  a  precipice !  The  eternal  order 
by  which  he  might  be  kept  from  falling  was 
providentially  established,  nor  would  be  sus- 
pended a  moment  because  he  preferred  to  fly 
in  its  face  and  be  dashed  to  pieces.  The  same 
laws  were  always  operating,  the  same  condi- 
tions always  existing,  by  conforming  to  which 
he  might  avoid  the  precipice,  or  falling,  might 
yet  save  himself  from  injury  or  death.  It  was 
by  the  inexorable  unchangeableness  and  certain- 
ty of  Providence's  operations  that  the  one  specu- 
lator lost  and  the  other  saved  his  money,  and 
by  heeding  which  both  might  have  been  kept 
from  sacrificing  their  characters. 


Providence.  79 

Always,  in  the  invariability  and  absolute 
uniformity  of  Providence  lies  its  true  benef- 
icence and  wisdom.  And  if  any  change  in 
the  divine  Being  and  his  manifestations  were 
thinkable,  it  would  have  to  be  at  the  expense 
of  that  wisdom  and  beneficence.  For,  as  is 
freely  admitted  by  all  leading  theologians,  as 
for  example  by  Dr.  Fisher  of  Yale,  "all  the 
forces  of  nature  are  so  interlinked  in  a  system, 
that  any  single  occurrence  involves  the  more 
immediate  or  the  more  remote  participation  of 
all."  Every  minutest  circumstance,  therefore, 
every  most  trivial  event,  is  causally  connected 
with  every  circumstance  and  event  of  the  re- 
motest past  as  of  the  most  distant  future.  It 
is  the  product  that  has  grown  out  of  the  labor 
of  the  centuries.  It  is  a  seed-germ  in  which  lie 
enfolded  essential  parts  of  the  happiness  and 
very  existence  of  future  ages.  It  is  a  necessary 
step  in  the  march  of  universal  being.  It  is  a 
note  in  the  sublime  harmony  of  the  spheres. 
To  change  it  would  be  to  abort  the  past,  to  rob 
the  future,  to  throw  the  all  into  hopeless  dis- 
cord. Upon  the  absolute  permanence  of  the 
methods  of  Providence,  therefore,  upon  the 
fact  that  providential  government  is  essentially 
government  by  law,  depend  its  helpfulness  to 
man,  and  its  general  beneficence. 

And  this  permanence  is  proved  not  only  by 
the  history  of  the  material  universe,  but  es- 
pecially by  that  of  the  human  race.  Not  only 


80  Tfie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

do  we  learn  from  geology  that,  ages  before 
man  appeared  upon  the  earth,  the  work  of 
developing  inorganic  matter  from  a  state  of 
comparative  chaos  to  one  of  harmony  and  beauty 
went  on  regularly,  according  to  precisely  the 
same  laws  that  yet  are  in  force ; — not  only  are 
we  taught  that  organisms  were  differentiated, 
and  perfected  in  their  growth,  in  the  same  order 
now  yet  revealed  to  us :  first  the  seed,  then  the 
blade,  and  then  the  full  ear,  each  plant  and 
each  animal  producing  after  its  kind,  living 
according  to  known  laws  that  still  regulate  all 
life ; — but  by  the  new  science  of  sociology  we 
are  now  also  assured  that  man  in  all  his  rela- 
tions to  his  fellow  men,  his  marrying,  his  build- 
ing, his  travelling,  his  politics,  his  religion, 
follows  the  same  fixed  and  certain  order  as  in 
the  beginning  regulated  his  conduct  under  like 
circumstances.  While  it  has  indeed  always 
been  taught  as  a  religious  tenet  that 

"  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will," 

it  was  left  for  sociology  not  only  to  demon- 
strate the  tenet  to  be  a  scientific  fact,  no  longer 
to  be  questioned  or  doubted  by  any  one,  but 
also  to  show  that  in  this  as  in  everything  else, 
the  divinity  proceeds  according  to  a  regular 
order,  certain  and  invariable;  and  thus  to  make 
the  fact  utilizable  and  of  practical  moment  to 
man.  It  is  true,  the  laws  of  sociology  are  by 


Providence.  81 

no  means  clearly  understood  as  yet.  The  sci- 
ence is  too  young  for  us  to  expect  that  already ; 
and  perhaps  the  field  is  too  intricate  and  pro- 
found for  us  ever  to  expect  it.  Still  the  fact 
has  been  established  that  here  as  everywhere 
there  is  law,  there  is  real  divine  Providence. 

And  more  than  this,  while  Christianity  and 
Evolution  both  deny  that  any  one  can  under- 
stand the  motives  and  purposes  of  God,  whose 
thoughts  are  higher  than  our  thoughts  as  the 
heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  and  while 
both  ask,  "Who  can  tell  what  is  good  for  man 
in  this  life?"  they  are  at  one  as  to  the  fact  that 
the  order  of  providential  government  is  alto- 
gether beneficent.  Just  as  the  Bible  ever  im- 
plies and  expressly  declares  that  "all.  things 
work  together  for  good, ' '  so  science  ever  illus- 
trates and  enforces  the  same  truth  as  expressed 
by  Mr.  Spencer,  that  "Slowly,  but  surely, 
evolution  brings  about  an  increasing  amount  of 
ha-ppiness;"  and  that  "Evolution  can  end  only 
in  the  establishment  of  the  greatest  perfection 
and  the  most  complete  happiness. "  4  The  only 
difference  is  that  the  latter  attempts  in  some 
measure  to  explain  how  Providence  does  it,  by 
what  means  and  what  method. 

Accepting  with  religion  the  evidence  of  eth- 
nology and  history,  that  the  differentiation  of 
man  into  families,  tribes,  nations,  and  races  was 

4  First  Principles. 


82  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  result  of  providential  leading  and  was  an 
essential  factor  in  the  improvement  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
condition  of  humanity,  Evolution  gives  the  ad- 
ditional information  that  Providence  did  this, 
not  by  any  interference  with  the  laws  of  nature, 
nor  in  a  lawless  manner,  but  according  to  the 
methods  of  natural  selection,  sexual  selection, 
the  struggle  for  existence,  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  variation,  heredity,  by  means  of  ten- 
dencies, appetites,  desires,  and  thoughts,  in- 
herent in  the  human  constitution.  It  does  not 
thereby  in  any  wise  deny  the  beneficence  of  the 
results.  This  cannot  be  denied,  unless  one 
would  refuse  to  acknowledge  that  the  present 
state  of  man  is  better  than  his  primitive  con- 
dition. Through  all  the  wars  and  intrigues, 
the  migrations  of  nations,  the  founding  and  the 
downfall  of  dynasties  and  states  in  the  past,  it 
recognizes  the  action  of  that  divine  PoAver 
whose  all-pervading  energy  moved  and  directed 
each  detail  as  the  whole  grand  total  of  history ; 
and  while  with  Cowper 

"  Resolving  all  events,  with  their  effects 

And  manifold  results,  into  the  will 
And  arbitration  wise  of  the  Supreme,"  5 

it  agrees  rather  with  the  healthier  Milton  than 
with  the  more  melancholy  bard,  in  affirming 
that 

5  The  Task, 


Providence.  83 

"  All  is  best, — though  we  often  doubt 
What  the  unsearchable  dispose 

Of  highest  wisdom  brings  about, — 
And  ever  best  found  in  the  close."6 

If  there  is  such  unanimity  between  religion 
and  Evolution  as  to  what  is  commonly  called 
"general  Providence,"  why  should  there  be 
any  conflict  between  them  on  the  subject  of 
"special  Providence?"  For  it  is  here  that 
oftenest  they  are  said  to  be  at  variance.  I 
think,  however,  it  is  all  owing  to  the  unfortu- 
nate use  of  the  term  "special  Providence," 
which  stands  for  no  reality,  nor  is  meant  to 
express  any  real  difference  in  Providence  itself 
or  in  its  methods.  At  least  no  intelligent 
Christian  will  so  use  it. 

Eeally  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  special 
Providence.  Or,  if  you  please,  there  is  no 
general  Providence,  but  only  a  special.  Every 
occurrence  is  under  the  guidance  of  that  omni- 
present Power  "that  worketh  all  in  all."  He 
not  only  holds  the  seas  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand,  but  not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground 
without  him,  and  the  very  hairs  of  our  head 
are  all  numbered.  It  is  the  same  Power  that 
condensed  the  limitless  expanses  of  star-dust 
nebulae  into  globes  and  systems  of  worlds,  and 
that  distils  the  atmospheric  moisture  into  dia- 
mond de  \v-drops;  the  same  Energy  that  guides 

6  Samson  Agonistes. 


84  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  myriad  suns  and  planets  through  the  fields 
of  ether,  and  that  whirls  the  autumn  leaves  a 
sombre  flock  through  the  forest.  Eealize  this, 
and  all  difficulties  about  general  and  special 
Providence  will  vanish  into  nothing. 

And  this  Evolution  helps  us  to  realize  most 
vividly.  According  to  its  fundamental  princi- 
ple, that  of  the  persistence  of  force,  the  divine 
Power  is  immediately  present  in  every  single 
occurrence  that  takes  place  anywhere.  Abso- 
lutely nothing  happens  without  God,  without 
his  direct  and  immediate  presence  and  activity. 
So  far  the  Christian's  faith  in  the  continual 
and  abiding  nearness  of  God,  and  sense  of  abso- 
lute dependence  upon  him  is  fully  borne  out 
by  Evolution,  and  demonstrated  in  a  manner 
comprehensible  to  all.  The  assurance  that 
"He  doeth  all  things  well"  is  not  weakened,  but 
substantiated  by  the  conviction  forced  upon  us 
by  Evolution  that ' '  By  its  essential  nature,  the 
process  must  everywhere  produce  greater  fit- 
ness to  the  conditions  of  existence."  Upon 
this,  too,  we  can  base  a  childlike,  trustful  hope 
for  our  individual  selves.  For  if  we  are  sure 
that  all  things  conduce  to  the  greatest  good  of 
all,  then  whatever  happens  to  us,  however 
seemingly  evil  for  the  present,  must  also  event- 
ually be  for  our  own  benefit,  in  so  far  as  we 
are  a  part  of  the  whole,  and  the  advantage  of 
the  whole  reflects  to  the  real  advantage  of  its 
every  part. 


Providence.  85 

This  trust  is  indeed  a  source  of  peace  and 
humble  resignation  to  the  divine  guidance. 
But  it  is  not  all  the  Christian  may  have.  Nor 
would  it  be  enough  to  be  of  practical  aid  in  his 
work  and  conduct  of  life.  We  want  to  know 
how  God's  presence  and  power  are  conditioned; 
what  determines  the  form  and  direction  of  his 
manifestation;  how  we  may  derive  help  and 
benefit  therefrom.  Plainly,  if  he  manifests 
himself  quite  arbitrarily,  according  to  no  known 
method  and  order,  the  reign  of  Providence  is 
not  much  different  to  us,  in  our  practical  work 
and  in  ordering  our  characters  and  lives,  than 
would  be  the  reign  of  chance.  What  we  need 
to  know  is,  not  only  that  in  a  general  way  its 
results  will  be  for  good,  and  that  ultimately 
the  whole  universe  will  be  benefited  and  bet- 
tered, but  especially  how  you  and  I  may  be 
benefited,  according  to  what  principles,  on 
what  conditions,  you  and  I  will  receive  good 
from  the  divine  influence.  What  we  are  most 
interested  in  and  concerned  about  is  the  good  of 
us  as  individuals,  and  that  too,  not  only  the 
ultimate,  but  the  immediate,  present  good. 

And  to  a  certain  extent  at  least  it  is  our 
privilege  and  even  our  duty  to  know  this ;  even 
as  it  is  a  necessary  prerequisite  to  true  religious 
faith  rjid  trust.  From  his  mere  conviction  that 
all  that  God  does  is  well  done,  the  farmer  has 
no  right  nor  power  to  trust  Providence  that  it 
will  keep  it  from  raining  to-morrow  and  ruining 


86  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

his  crops.  But  in  order  really  to  have  this 
trust  and  be  justified  in  it,  he  must  know 
enough  of  the  meteorological  laws  to  be  ablo  to 
tell  whether  the  conditions  of  rain  are  present 
or  absent.  It  the  latter,  then  he  will  be  able 
to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is  in  him ; 
not  otherwise.  For  without  this  knowledge 
his  professed  trust  would  either  be  mere  hy- 
pocrisy, or  the  ignorant  presumption  that  God, 
for  this  man's  private  convenience,  would  alter 
his  eternally  fixed  order  of  procedure,  and  dis- 
regard the  highest  good  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
universe. 

I  am  aware  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
all  the  much-talked-of  trust  in  Providence  is 
nothing  but  just  such  hypocrisy  or  presumptu- 
ous ignorance.  It  is  even  thought  by  not  a  few 
that  knowledge  is  incompatible  with  trustful- 
ness. There  is,  however,  no  ground  whatever, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  for  such  an  irreligious 
notion  either  in  the  Bible  or  in  experience.  All 
trust  that  is  not  based  on  knowledge,  and 
willing  to  be  conformed  to  it,  is  disappointed 
as  often  as  not ;  and  is  never  capable  of  influ- 
encing for  good  the  life  of  him  who  holds  it. 

I  know  that  the  theory  of  Providence  now 
taught  in  our  orthodox  systems  of  theology 
differs,  seemingly,  but  only  seemingly,  from  tie 
popularly  held  ones  that  we  have  considered. 
According  to  it  God  has  so  ordered  every 
minutest  detail  of  occurrence  in  the  world  as  to 


Providence.  87 

accord  with  his  preconceived  purpose  and  plan. 
When  you  stumble  and  fall,  for  example,  it  is 
indeed  the  immediate  result  of  your  not  seeing 
the  stone  in  your  path,  and  this  is  the  result  of 
your  attention  having  been  attracted  to  a  kick- 
ing horse  on  the  street,  and  this  again  has  a 
complication  of  other  causes,  and  so  on  along 
the  chain  of  causality,  until  it  becomes  too 
intricate  to  follow,  back  to  the  will  of  God  who 
ordained  that  all  these  causes  and  events  should 
so  work  together  as  to  bring  about,  just  at  that 
moment  of  time,  just  that  particular  occur- 
rence, to  wit :  your  stumbling  over  that  stone ; 
and  all  this,  in  order  that  you  should  fall. 

The  objections  to  this  view  are  the  same  as 
those  against  the  popular  one,  as,  indeed,  the 
latter  is  really  the  same  as  the  former,  only  in 
a  cruder  form.  It  ascribes  intentions  and  pur- 
poses to  the  divine  Being  for  which  there  is  no 
warrant  anywhere.  It  presumes  to  know  the 
inscrutable  mysteries  of  God's  inmost  being, 
and  comprehend  his  ways  which  are  past  find- 
ing out.  It  degrades  the  conception  of  the 
divine  by  making  it  essentially  like  the  human 
nature.  And  none  the  less  than  the  popular 
view,  it  either  supposes  a  change  in,  or  at  least 
an  addition  to,  the  original  forms  of  God's 
manifestation;  or  it  necessitates  an  ultra-Cal- 
vinistic  fatalism.  Either  every  minutest  detail 
has  been  ^re  ordained  and  fixed  from  all  eter- 
nity, or  some  where  in  the  past,  in  that  vague 


88  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

complication  of  causes  where  the  mind  can  no 
longer  follow  the  separate  threads,  there  was  a 
new  direction  given,  in  order  to  which  new 
causes  and  conditions  must  have  been  created, 
with  a  view  to  the  future  stumbling  and  falling. 

The  view  which  alone  Evolution  warrants, 
and  which  I  before  tried  to  explain,  lays  itself 
open  to  none  of  these  objections.  It  presumes 
to  no  knowledge  of  God's  preconceived  inten-j 
tions.  The  events  and  occurrences  of  the  world 
it  simply  accepts  as  the  results  of  the  continuous 
unfolding  of  the  divine  Being,  the  uniformity 
and  regularity  of  which  constitute  the  order  or 
laws  of  nature.  Nor  is  there  ever  any  change 
or  modification  made  in  this  order.  From  all 
eternity  it  is  fixed  that  whoever  does  not  look 
to  his  footsteps  and  encounters  a  stone  in  his 
path,  will  stumble  and  fall  over  that  stone. 
Had  the  man  in  our  illustration  had  faith  enough 
in  Providence  to  conform  himself  to  this  divine 
order,  he  would  not  have  fallen.  As  it  was,  he 
disregarded  Providence,  and  incurred  the  nat- 
ural penalty,  he  fell.  It  was  according  to 
providential  method,  by  providential  means. 
Providence  was  in  it  from  beginning  to  end. 
But  a  Providence  recognizable  by  science,  intelli- 
gible to  reason,  and  not  contrary  to  Scripture. 

The  Bible  expressly  tells  us  that  "all  things 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God. ' ' 
The  promise  of  safety  and  special  protection  is 
never  promiscuously  made;  but  ever  only  to 


Providence.  89 

them  who  are  true  servants  and  followers  of 
God.  They  are  the  only  ones  not  a  hair  of 
whose  heads  shall  be  touched  for  harm.  And 
this  theology  shows  us  to  mean,  and  Evolution 
confirms  it  as  the  only  possible  meaning,  that 
only  those  whose  whole  purpose  is  bent  on 
making  their  lives  conform  with  the  life  of  God 
as  far  as  known,  whose  spirits  are  subject  to] 
his  Spirit,  have  any  reason  or  right  to  trust  in 
his  Providence.  For  only  this  is  true  love  and 
service  of  God :  to  recognize  the  beneficence  of 
the  divine  order  everywhere,  to  become  more 
fully  acquainted  with  it,  and  to  care  more  for 
its  fulfillment  and  unhindered  action,  than  for 
our  own  little  selfish  wishes,  intentions,  and 
projects.  In  direct  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
such  iove  in  any  one's  heart,  is  that  one's  union 
with  God;  the  more  fully  one  has  thus  renewed 
his  mind,  and  presented  himself,  body,  soul, 
and  spirit  a  living  sacrifice  to  him,  the  more 
fully  will  he  "prove  what  is  that  good,  and 
acceptable,  and  perfect,  will  of  God."  Such, 
an  one  will  have  cause  to  expect  with  confi- 
dence to  be  cared  for,  protected,  guided,  and 
blessed  by  the  divine  Providence ;  not  through 
any  interposition  of  the  latter,  any  interference 
with  the  regular  course  of  divine  manifestation, 
but  through  his  own  subjection  to  and  con- 
formity with  this  very  order;  not  through  any 
alteration  or  suspension  of  God's  laws,  but 
through  his  own  obedience  to  these  laws, 


90  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

through  his  own  becoming  an  integral  part  and 
co-agent  in  the  eternal  harmony  of  the  universe. 
And  even  those  occurrences  which  others  would 
call  adverse  and  unfortunate,  he  will  at  once 
gladly  and  freely  recognize  and  accept  as  boons 
and  blessings,  corrections  which  shall  tend 
better  to  instruct  him,  means  to  assist  him  in 
the  future  fuller  and  more  complete  adaptation 
and  adjustment  of  himself  to  the  divine.  Such 
occurrences  will  often  happen  in  the  present 
imperfect  knowledge  of  God  and  his  laws.  But 
they  will  never  be  really  contrary  to  the  true 
Christian  servant's  will;  for  he  has  no  positive 
will  except  where  he  knows  it  to  be  in  accord 
with  God's  being  and  methods. 

How  different  the  trust  of  such  an  one  is  from 
that  pseudo-trust  which  too  many  profess,  and 
with  which  they  bring  the  whole  blessed  doc- 
trine of  Providence  into  disrepute  and  scorn! 
And  how  materially  Evolution  helps  him  in  it ! 

First  of  all,  humility  enters  into  all  true  trust, 
as  into  all  true  religion.  And  he  who  has  it 
does  not  get  up  in  prayer- meeting  and  say,  ' '  I 
was  going  to  town  on  the  very  train  that  was 
wrecked  this  morning;  but  providentially  our 
carriage -wheel  came  off,  and  we  were  detained 
until  after  the  tram  had  started.  I  feel  that 
indeed  the  Lord  takes  care  of  his  own!"  and 
then  sit  down  with  a  look  at  the  poor  publicans 
around  that  plainly  says,  "I  thank  Thee,  Lord, 
that  I  am  not  like  other  men;  or  even  like 


Providence.  91 

these!'5  But,  while  gratefully  confessing  that 
even  the  coming  off  of  his  carriage- wheel  was 
providential,  he  does  not  think  nor  imply  that 
it  was  because  of  his  superior  piety,  or  because 
he  was  a  special  favorite  of  God.  He  is  not 
elated,  but  more  deeply  bowed  down.  For  he 
knows  that  the  same  Providence  that  was  in 
his  detention  was  also  in  the  wreck  from  which 
hundreds  of  his  fellow  men,  as  good  and  pious 
as  himself,  were  made  to  suffer.  And  that,  in 
both,  the  divine  agency  was  according  to  fixed 
laws  and  conditions ;  not  on  that  account,  how- 
ever, less  providential;  nor  more  so  than  the 
day  before  when  the  train  was  not  wrecked  and 
he  not  detained.  Though  the  result  would 
have  been,  perhaps,  less  painful,  if,  the  provi- 
dentially fixed  conditions  of  a  safe  journey 
being  known,  they  had  been  more  carefully 
complied  with. 

It  is  a  lack  of  humility  that  sees  Providence 
in  that  which  conduces  to  its  own  convenience 
more  than  in  anything  else ;  that  imagines  the 
indulgence  of  its  own  wishes  and  whims  of 
more  importance  and  significance  than  the 
regular  process  of  divine  beneficence  that  is 
going  on  every  moment  in  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  whole  universe ;  or  that  presumes 
to  believe  that  all  the  eternal  chain  of  past  and 
future  events  was  designed  and  adjusted  so  as 
to  meet  its  insignificant  approbation ;  instead  of 
seeing  and  gratefully  appreciating  the  far  more 


92  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

sublime  and  blessed  fact  that  it,  in  spite  of  its 
littleness  and  un worthiness,  may  and  must  ad- 
just and  adapt  itself  to  this  eternal  order  and 
become  a  living,  co-operating  part  of  the  same. 

Humility  realizing  this,  dutif  ulness  then  makes 
all  true  trust  a  living,  active,  working  trust,  and 
him  who  holds  it  a  "laborer  together  with 
God."  Knowing  how  many  of  his  ways  are 
incomprehensible  and  unsearchable,  the  real 
believer  will  not  blame  Providence  for  any  dis- 
appointment or  misfortune,  but  will  attribute  it 
always  to  his  own  ignorance  or  neglect.  If  he 
falls  down  the  stairs  in  the  dark,  he  will  neither 
complain  of  the  ' '  mysterious  visitation  of  Provi- 
dence," nor  afterward  lie  down  and  simply 
"trust  to  Providence"  to  set  his  broken  leg. 
But  he  will  confess  that  the  means  of  lighting 
his  lamp  and  descending  the  stairs  in  safety 
had  been  providentially  given  him,  but  been 
neglected  by  him.  And  he  will  accept  the  fall 
as  a  providential  assistance  to  him  not  to  fall 
the  next  time.  Moreover  he  will  quickly  send 
for  the  best  physician,  so  firmly  trusting  Provi- 
dence as  to  consider  it  a  duty  to  use  every 
means  known  through  which  Providence  might 
heal  the  fractured  bone,  and  restore  to  health 
his  shattered  frame. 

So  always.  The  only  trust  for  which  there 
is  any  warrant  in  the  Scriptures,  and  which  is 
in  full  agreement  with  Evolution  also,  accepts 
the  established  order  of  divine  manifestation, 


Providence.  93 

and  seeks  in  every  way  possible  to  become 
more  fully  acquainted,  and  to  bring  itself  into 
accord  and  harmony,  with  it.  It  does  not  go 
into  the  house  of  a  small-pox  patient,  or  eat 
unwholesome  food,  or  expose  itself  to  wet  and 
cold  and  malarial  damps,  and  then  trust  Provi- 
dence to  preserve  it  in  health  and  strength. 
Nor  does  it  store  nitre-glycerine  in  the  cellar, 
or  pour  kerosene  oil  into  the  stove,  or  give  the 
children  matches  to  play  with,  and  then  place  its 
trust  in  Providence  to  guard  it  against  calamity 
by  fire.  This  would  be  no  trust  at  all,  but 
mockery.  Real,  worthy  Christian  trust  learns 
what  it  can  of  the  laws  of  health,  and  conforms 
its  conduct  to  them.  It  removes  alJL  the  con- 
ditions and  possible  causes  of  fire.  And  then  it 
has  a  reason  for  its  confidence,  and  will  not  be 
disappointed  therein.  Where  it  is  disappointed, 
it  will  find  by  investigation  that  it  was  not 
through  the  failure  of  any  of  the  providential 
laws,  but  invariably  through  some  failure  of  its 
own,  through  ignorance  or  carelessness,  to 
adapt  itself  fully  to  these  laws. 
\  In  a  word,  the  trust  of  love,  the  only  Chris- 
jtian  trust,  accepts  God's  ways  of  working  in- 
stead of  man's,  and  adopts  the  former  in  place 
of  the  latter,  as  far  as  it  is  able.  And  thus  "the 
Spirit  allies  himself  with  every  faculty  of  ours 
to  quicken  and  to  strengthen  it,  and  to  work 
through  it  for  good,"  in  the  words  of  Canon 
Fremantle  of  Canterbury;  thus  is  "the  Divine 


94  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

order  established  in  our  renewed  nature,  the 
surest  witness  that  we  are  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  the  spiritual  mind  by  which  we  see  each 
part  of  the  universe  in  its  relation  to  its  center, 
and  evolving  itself  under  the  Divine  purpose 
towards  complete  organization  and  perfect  har- 
mony."  ' 

I  am  well  aware  that  many  will  object  to  this 
view  as  taking  away  from  the  conception  of 
Providence  that  element  of  uncertainty,  mys- 
tery, unreliability,  which  to  them  is  essential, 
and  substituting  the  reign  of  law.  But  is  not 
the  'Duke  of  Argyll  correct  when  he  says, 
"Creation  by  Law — Evolution  by  Law — Devel- 
opment by  Law,  or,  as  including  all  these  kindred 
ideas,  the  Eeign  of  Law,  is  nothing  but  the 
reign  of  Creative  Force  directed  by  Creative 
Knowledge,  worked  under  the  control  of  Cre- 
ative Power  and  in  fulfillment  of  Creative  Pur- 
pose' '  ? 8  As  the  laureate  puts  it, 

"  God  is  law,  say  the  wise;  O  Soul,  and  let  us  rejoice, 
For  if  He  thunder  by  law  the  thunder  is  yet  His  voice."  9 

And  I  am  convinced  that  our  view  is  in  no 
particular  gainsaid  by  any  of  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion,  while  it  is  the  only  view 
compatible  with  the  principles  of  Evolution  and 
the  revelations  of  scientific  observation. 

7  The  Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life. 

8  The  Reign  of  Law. 

9  The  Higher  Pantheism. 


Providence.  95 

The  Bible  and  Evolution,  then,  are  at  one 
with  regard  to  what  is  called  general  Provi- 
dence, that  all  things  are  guided  and  controlled 
by  a  Supreme  Power,  according  to  fixed  laws, 
and  are  made  to  tend  to  the  greatest  good  of 
all.  As  to  special  Providence  the  Bible  just  as 
clearly  and  positively  declares  that  it  is  con- 
ditioned ;  and  in  a  general  way,  it  tells  us  what 
these  conditions  are:  love  to  God.  What  is 
this  but  saying  that  Providence  acts  strictly 
according  to  law?  Now  all  that  Evolution 
does  is  more  fully  to  explain  and  interpret  this, 
to  tell  us  in  what  this  love  to  God  must  consist, 
and  how  it  must  act.  This  explanation  may, 
indeed,  contradict  the  old  notion  that  the  love 
of  God,  religion,  is  nothing  but  a  mental  state 
having  no  relation  to  or  influence  on  our  lives ; 
but  it  certainly  does  not  contradict  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible  in  any  sense. 

Nor  does  our  view  deprive  the  Christian  of 
any  of  the  comforting  and  sustaining  power  of 
his  childlike  confidence  and  trust  in  the  over- 
ruling presence  of  him  whose  leading  is  alto- 
gether good  and  beneficent.  As  I  tried  to 
show,  it  rather  strengthens  it,  by  making  his 
presence  more  vividly  realizable,  and  enforces 
it  by  its  full  illustration  and  proof  of  the  bene- 
ficence of  his  ways.  It  does,  moreover,  warn 
the  truly  devout  against  misplacing  their  trust, 
and  show  them  where  and  how  they  ought  to 
place  it  in  order  to  avoid  the  danger  of  making 


96  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

a  mistake  and  being  disappointed;  not  upon 
their  own  merit  or  righteousness,  nor  upon  any 
supposed  human  feelings,  motives,  impulses,  hi 
God ;  but  only  and  directly  upon  God  himself 
as  he  manifests  his  being  and  mode  of  action  hi 
the  beneficent  order  of  the  universe  every- 
where. Wherever  they  do  not  fully  understand 
this  divine  order  and  its  conditions,  as  hi  the 
great  majority  of  instances  must  as  yet  be  the 
case,  they  are  told  that  to  expect  it  to  be  such 
as  always  suits  their  individual  pleasure  or  con- 
venience, is  not  trust,  but  presumption,  and  are 
pointed  to  the  facts  of  experience  hi  evidence 
that  they  will  be  disappointed  oftener  than  not. 
Genuine  trust  in  such  cases  will  go  no  further 
than  with  firm  confidence  to  expect  that  the 
greatest  good  of  all  will  be  promoted,  and  will 
accept  with  humble  resignation  whatever  par- 
ticular lot  may  fall  to  itself,  knowing  that  itself 
is  a  means  and  condition  in  the  furtherance  of 
the  destiny  of  the  whole. 

And,  finally,  knowing  this,  the  earnest  be-  f 
liever  will  ever  make  it  the  highest  aim  of  his 
life  to  know  more  and  more  of  God  and  his 
ways,  and  to  work  actively  hi  accord  with  them ; 
not  sitting  idly  by  and  waiting  for  Providence 
t '  his  wonders  to  perform, ' '  but  realizing  that  G  od 
manifests  himself  hi  and  through  him  as  well 
as  everywhere  else,  he  will  diligently  labor  in 
the  department  in.  which  he  finds  himself,  not 
for  the  indulgence  of  his  own  whims  and  fancies, 


Providence.  97 

but  along  the  line  pointed  out  to  him  in  the 
whole  course  of  animate  and  inanimate  nature, 
for  the  consummation  of  that  divine  perfection 
for  which  the  ages  have  been  striving,  to  which 
the  fingers  of  the  past  are  pointing  and  the 
angels  of  the  future  beckoning,  rejoicing  that 
even  he  is  chosen  to  work  hand  in  hand  with 
the  whirling  of  the  planets,  the  shining  of  the 
myriad  suns,  the  Kghtnings  of  heaven  and  the 
heaving  of  the  earth,  with  saints  and  sages, 
heat  and  light  and  gravitation,  with  all  the 
elemental  powers  and  vast  cosmic  forces;  his 
heart  throbbing  with  God's  own  heart,  his  life 
helping  to  swell  the  harmony  of  God's  eternal 
being, 

"  That  God  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves."10 

»°  Tennyson— In  Memoriam, 


IV. 
PRAYER. 


"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  Whatsoever  ye  shall 
ask  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  will  give  it  you. " 

(JOHN  16:  23.) 

"The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much." 

(JAMES  5:  16.) 

"It  is  said  that  evolution  destroys  prayer.  Well,  for 
those  who  use  prayer  as  beggary,  it  does,  it  ought  to.  It 
is  only  natural  that  men  should  cry  under  stress  for  special 
things:  but  prayer,  real  prayer,  is  communion." 

(HENRY  WARD  BKECHER — Evolution  and  devolution.) 

"Faith,  dependence,  lovo,  obedience,  self -surrender,  and 
the  unity  and  activity  of  will, — these  constitute  the  laws 
and  spirit  of  prayer. " 

(P.  C.  MOZOOMDAR—  The  Oriental  Christ.) 

"In  prayer  the  intelligent  believer  does  not  invoke  a 
different  Power  from  that  which  is  manifested  in  all  the 
forms  of  physical  energy  which  are  manifested  in  nature; 
he  does  but  invoke  the  same  Power,  and  the  only  Power 
which  is  the  source  of  all  causation,  and  produces  all  the 
processions  of  phenomena." 

(B.  F.  COCKER—  Theistic  Conception  of  the  World.) 

"When  there  is  a  way  by  which  God  can  answer  prayer 
without  disturbing  his  own  laws,  it  is  safest  to  conclude 
that  this  is  the  actual  method  employed." 

(JAMES  McCosn — Method  ofJDimne  Government.) 


IV. 

PKAYER 

THE  doctrine  of  prayer  is  intimately  and 
vitally  connected  with  that  of  Providence.  Ac- 
cording to  the  view  we  take  of  the  latter  will 
be  our  view  of  the  former.  If,  therefore,  the  con- 
clusions of  our  preceding  Study  were  correct, 
we  should  have  no  great  difficulty  in  arriving 
at  a  satisfactory  view  of  prayer,  satisfactory  to 
the  Christian  Bible  student  and  the  Christian 
evolutionist  alike. 

As  we  had  to  reject  the  old  but  still  popular 
idea  of  Providence,  that  regards  God  as  adapt- 
ing himself  and  the  outer  world  to  man,  and 
substitute  for  it  the  truer  one  that  God  gives 
man  the  knowledge  and  means  to  adjust  himself 
to  the  divine  being  and  order;  so  will  we  find 
the  conception  of  prayer,  as  to  its  essential 
nature,  its  mode  of  expression,  and  its  end, 
which  alone  is  substantiated  by  observed  facts, 
alone  is  in  accord  with  the  principles,  or  at  least 
the  general  spirit  and  trend,  of  Evolution,  and 
alone  is  fully  sanctioned  by  the  principles  and 
reconcilable  with  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  to 
be  different  from  the  old  but  still  theoretically 
current  notions  on  the  subject,  and  far  more 
consistent  with  the  whole  spirit  of  Christianity, 


102  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

worthier  of  responsible,  rational  beings,  and 
more  practically  helpful,  elevating,  and  inspiring 
in  its  influence  upon  man. 

Prayer  is  universal.  We  know  man  only  as 
a  praying  creature.  From  the  earliest  ages  he 
has  prayed.  And  Milton  aptly  describes,  as 
characteristic  of  the  first  human  pair,  how  at 
the  close  of  the  first  day, 

"  at  their  shady  lodge  arrived,  both  stood, 
Both  turned,  and  under  open  sky  adored 
The  God  that  made  both  sky,  air,  earth,  and  heaven, 
Which  they  beheld;  the  moon's  resplendent  globe, 
And  starry  pole:"  1 

The  lowest  aboriginal  Australian  after  his 
fashion  prays  to  his  fetich.  The  native  African, 
in  his  bamboo  hut,  prays  to  his  Shaman,  and 
his  Shaman  in  fantastic  rite  bears  his  prayers  to 
his  deity.  The  fierce  Viking  of  the  north, 
cowering  on  the  deck  of  his  boat,  prayed  to 
Thor  whose  thunders  shake  the  sky,  to  Loki 
whose  lightning  rends  the  heavens.  The  Parsee 
bows  before  the  sun;  the  Hebrew  bends  before 
Jehovah;  the  Greek  and  Eoman,  Hindu  and 
Aztec,  Pagan  and  Christian,  man  everywhere 
and  always  has  prayed,  and  ever  and  in  all  places 
will  pray.  It  may  be  to  false  gods  or  to  true, 
it  may  be  from  superstition  or  religion,  from 
fear  or  from  love,  yet  the  fact  of  prayer  re- 
mams,  and  with  it  the  fact  of  a  fundamental 

1  Paraside  Lost. 


Prayer.  103 

instinct  or  impulse  prompting  to  it,  deep  down 
in  the  roots  of  human  nature,  always  the  same 
whatever  new  elements  may  be  ingrafted  upon 
it,  into  whatever  variety  of  form  it  may  flower 
and  whatever  fruit  it  may  bear. 

And  like  every  wild  stock  of  nature  in  which 
there  is  inherent  good,  it  has  shown  itself  capa- 
ble of  culture  and  improvement.  It  has  obeyed 
the  law  of  development  with  wonderful  plia- 
bility, adapted  itself  to  vast  changes  in  its  en- 
vironment, and  ever  survived  in  higher,  purer, 
and  better  forms,  until  to-day  we  scarce  would 
be  willing  to  recognize  as  real  those  earlier  and 
crude  feelings  and  expressions  which  once  took 
the  place  of  what  now  is  alone  acknowledged 
to  be  prayer,  were  it  not  that  the  original  stock 
still  flourishes  to  so  remarkable  an  extent,  and 
that  reversals  to  the  earliest  forms  are  still  com- 
mon. For  practically,  among  the  masses  of  intel- 
ligent Christians  even,  the  conception  and  prac- 
tice of  prayer  are  but  little  advanced  beyond 
those  not  only  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  but  of 
the  age  of  Shamanism  and  Fetich- worship. 

It  is  this  very  fact  that  repels  so  many  of  the 
more  thoughtful  to  the  extreme  of  not  believing 
in  nor  practicing  prayer  at  all.  They  know 
only  of  the  crude  conception,  and  even  perhaps 
without  being  able  to  give  a  definite  reason 
against  it,  yet  feel  that  it  is  out  of  accord  with 
man's  present  knowledge  and  views,  not  ad- 
justable to  the  present  state  of  moral  and  intel- 


104  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

lectual  culture.  The  wild  plant  is  out  of  place 
in,  out  of  harmony  with,  the  rest  of  the  spir- 
itual garden  of  to-day.  So  that  while  all  pro- 
fessed Christians  at  least  still  observe  the  forms 
of  prayer,  there  lurks  in  the  hearts  of  too  many 
si  strong  disbelief  in  its  use  and  efficacy.  The 
blame  is  not  theirs  so  much  as  of  those  who 
have  neglected  and  refused  to  cultivate  and 
improve  the  doctrine  of  prayer  up  to  the  general 
standard  required,  to  rid  it  of  what  is  erroneous 
or  unessential,  to  refine  its  dross  away,  and  to 
adapt  its  essential  truth  to  the  other  truths  of 
religion;  in  other  words,  to  bring  it  into  equi- 
librium with  the  rest  of  the  spiritual  world. 

I  would  not,  however,  be  understood  as  say- 
ing that  no  improvement  at  all  has  been  made 
in  the  past  in  this  matter.  The  doctrine  of 
prayer  as  to-day  held  and  explained  by  theo- 
logians is  vastly  in  advance  of  the  doctrine 
taught  even  only  a  century  ago.  Indeed  there 
is  probably  no  other  subject  in  theology  which 
has  undergone  more  evident  and  even  radical 
changes,  and  oftener,  to  adapt  it  to  the  growth 
of  human  intelligence  than  just  this  one.  I 
cannot  but  feel,  however,  that  the  modifications 
therein  have  not  kept  pace  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  our  ideas  of  the  divine  being  and  gov- 
ernment that  have  been  brought  about  chiefly 
by  the  immense  progress  made  in  the  natural 
sciences  within  the  last  few  decades,  and  the 
co-ordination  of  their  facts  and  discoveries  under 


Prayer.  105 

the  general  principles  of  Evolution.  In  all  the 
current  schemes  of  theology  so  much  at  least  of 
the  old  popular  notions  is  still  retained  as  limits 
the  form  of  expression  to  thought  and  speech, 
and  makes  its  purpose  and  end  the  conformity 
of  God  to  man.  In  so  far  there  is  little  or  no 
advance  made  by  theology  from  the  view  held 
by  the  general  Christian  public.  The  only 
difference  is  that  the  latter  asks  and  expects 
God  to  suspend,  or  break  in  upon,  the  uniform 
order  of  his  manifestation  by  direct  and  im- 
mediate interposition ;  while  the  former  supposes, 
according  to  Dr.  Fisher,  that  "in  answering 
prayer,  God  may  interpose,  not  manifestly  as  in 
the  case  of  a  miracle,  but,  by  the  control  which 
He  exercises  over  the  laws  of  Nature,  may 
modify  the  effect  of  their  action."— "The 
modification  of  causes  may  take  place  back  of 
all  proximate  forces,  in  a  region  which  science 
cannot  penetrate.  .  .  The  intervention  of 
Deity  is  out  of  sight,  among  the  remoter  forces 
that  are  nearer  the  primitive  fountain  of  power 
in  Himself."  2  Both  expect  by  prayer  to  bring 
about  some  kind  of  "interposition,"  some  "in- 
tervention of  Deity;"  whether  "manifestly"  or 
"out  of  sight"  is  unessential. 

This  view  is  very  properly  rejected  by  Dr. 
McCosh,  a  theologian  fully  alive  to  the  require- 
ments of  reason  and  science,  who  thinks  it  is 

2  The  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief. 


106  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

not  "needful  to  suppose  that  God  interposes  to 
change  his  own  laws.  The  analogy  of  his 
method  of  operation  in  other  matters  would 
rather  incline  us  to  believe  that  he  has  so 
arranged  these  laws,  that  by  their  agency  he 
may  answer  prayer  without  at  all  interfering 
with  them."  Therefore  his  theory  is  thus  ex- 
pressed: "When  the  question  is  asked,  How 
does  God  answer  prayer?  we  give  the  .  .  . 
reply — it  is  by  a  preordained  appointment,  when 
God  settled  the  constitution  of  the  world,  and 
set  all  its  parts  in  order."  3  But,  alas,  this  in 
turn  is  not  satisfactory  to  Dr.  Fisher,  who 
very  truly  says  that,  ' '  It  is  felt  by  many  to  be 
an  objection  to  this  view  that  if  nothing  is  to 
occur  except  what  causes  already  in  operation 
virtually  contain,  it  seems  like  praying  about 
what  is  past  and  beyond  recall. ' ' 4 

Aside  from  its  significance  as  showing  the 
general  dissatisfaction  with  the  current  theories 
of  prayer,  this  difference  between  two  of  the 
most  learned  and  representative  theologians  of 
the  present  day,  shows  the  difficulty,  the  im- 

3  Method  of  Divine  Government.  Cf  also  the  following, 
from  "Realistic  Philosophy,"  vol.  i. — 

"From  the  very  beginning  the  prayer  and  its  answer 
have  been  bound  together  in  the  counsels  of  heaven  and 
the  decrees  of  God.  To  accomplish  his  ends  and  to  an- 
swer prayer  it  is  not  necessary  that  God  should  change  his 
laws,  for  his  unchanging  laws  may  bring  what  is  prayed 
for." 

4  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief. 


Prayer.  107 

possibility,  of  maintaining  any  view  that  re- 
quires as  its  basis  a  belief  in  a  God  outside  of 
and  above  the  universe,  governing  it  from 
without  by  a  set  of  arbitrary  decrees,  to  be 
modified,  changed,  interfered  with  at  his  pleas- 
ure, or  at  the  request  of  any  of  his  creatures ; 
and  that  regards  man  as  separate  and  distinct 
from  the  rest  of  nature,  for  whose  benefit  and 
use  alone  nature  exists.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
no  doctrine  of  prayer  will  be  acceptable  to  men 
whose  faith  is  governed  by  their  knowledge, 
and  must  harmonize  with  the  prevalent  modes 
of  thought,  which  is  built  upon  such  a  founda- 
tion. For  it  is  one  entirely  unsupported  by  facts, 
out  of  all  accord  with  the  principles  which  are 
dominant  in  the  world  of  thought,  and  having 
no  sufficient  warrant  in  the  sacred  Scriptures. 

I  fully  agree  with  Dr.  Fisher  that  in  this 
matter  ' '  The  materials  for  induction  are  com- 
plex, and  scattered  over  a  vast  area.  Besides 
they  are  not  of  a  nature  to  be  tested  in  the 
crucible,  or  weighed  in  the  balance.''5  Still, 
I  cannot  fail  to  see,  as  every  honest  and  un- 
biased person,  it  appears  to  me,  must  see,  that 
there  is  not  a  single  well-attested  fact  extant  to 
show  that  there  has  ever  been  the  slightest 
modification  made  in  the  regular  order  of  divine 
manifestation  in  the  world  in  consequence  of 
mere  requests  preferred  by  men.  There  have 

6  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief. 


108  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

been  cases  where  persons  have  offered  up  peti- 
tions which  have  been  followed  by  their  fulfill- 
ment ;  where  men  have  asked  for  rain,  and  rain 
came;  for  safety  in  danger,  and  they  were 
preserved ;  for  recovery  from  disease,  and  they 
were  cured;  for  a  change  of  heart,  and  they 
were  converted.  But  not  only  is  there  no  evi- 
dence whatever  that  these  very  same  events 
would  not  have  occurred  even  if  the  petitions 
had  not  been  made ;  but  there  are  vastly  more 
cases  where  the  same  requests  were  made,  and 
were  not  followed  by  their  fulfillment.  So 
greatly  does  the  latter  class  of  facts  outnumber 
the  former,  that,  in  any  other  department  of 
observation,  no  one  would  hesitate  a  moment  to 
say  that  they  proved  conclusively  that  there 
was  no  real  connection  between  request  and 
fulfillment.  In  this  case,  I  freely  grant,  such  a 
conclusion  would  be  unwarranted.  But  I  also 
maintain  that  there  is  just  as  little  in  the  facts 
to  prove  that  there  exists  such  a  connection  as 
is  claimed.  If  the  facts  do  not  disprove  any- 
thing, neither  do  they  prove  anything.  It 
is  far  better  frankly  to  acknowledge  this,  than 
to  appeal  to  facts  which  can  have  no  weight, 
to  the  ordinary  mind  at  least,  so  long  as  there 
is  such  a  multitude  of  equally  well  attested  facts 
to  counterbalance  them.  Such  appeals  in  the 
pulpit  do  nothing  but  harm,  even  if  not  dealing, 
as  is  still  too  often  done,  with  instances  of 
"miraculous  healing"  and  boasted  and  well- 


Prayer.  109 

advertised  "faith- cures,"  such  as  periodically 
are  reported  from  rural  districts. 

To  make  men  believe  in  prayer,  teach  them  a 
doctrine  of  prayer  that  does  not  contradict  their 
experience,  and  does  no  violence  to  their  other 
beliefs,  and  to  the  whole  tenor  and  mode  of  their 
thought ;  a  doctrine  that  does  not  raise  and  then 
leave  unanswered  the  question,  so  deeply  felt 
even  by  the  gifted  Hindu  who  lately  visited  our 
shores,  and  so  earnestly  tried  to  be  answered  by 
him,  "How  can  man's  supplications  change  the 
purposes  of  the  Immutable?  How  can  divine 
fore-knowledge  be  influenced  by  the  petitions  of 
little-sighted  humanity  ?"  8  It  cannot !  says  Evo- 
lution. It  need  not;  it  does  not!  declares  the 
Bible. 

It  were  needless  to  adduce  any  evidence  that 
the  principles  of  Evolution  sanction  no  such 
view  of  prayer  as  that  currently  held.  That  is 
self-evident.  No  one  has  ever  claimed  that 
they  do,  nor,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  even  dream- 
ed of  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing.  And  no 
less  certain,  even  if  less  evident,  is  it  that  there 
can  be  no  sufficient  support  found  for  it  in  the 
Scriptures.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  statements 
there  made  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  with 
reference  to  prayer,  are  so  conditioned  and 
qualified  as  to  make  the  popular  theory  utterly 
irreconcilable  with  them;  even  while  they  point 

6  P.  C.  Mozoomdar— The  Oriental  Christ. 


110  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

so  clearly  to  the  true  view  that  one  marvels 
how  any  other  can  ever  have  gained  currency 
among  believers. 

Everywhere  the  promises  of  answer  to  prayer 
are  made  only  to  them  that  believe.  Faith  is 
the  condition  sine  qua  non.  And  faith  is  never 
a  mere  mental  act,  nor  capable  of  being  ex- 
pressed in  words  alone.  "Faith  without  works 
is  dead,  being  alone."  Ever  the  prayer  that 
availeth  must  be  "the  effectual  fervent  prayer 
of  a  righteous  man."  Ever  the  assurance  of 
being  heard  and  answered  is  made  by  Christ 
only  to  them  who  ' '  ask  in  my  name, ' '  which, 
we  are  assured  by  the  Hindu  already  quoted, 
who  certainly  is  worthy  of  being  heard,  as  en- 
tering more  deeply  into  the  full  meaning  of 
oriental  phraseology  than  we  colder  occidentals 
can,  "carries  with  it  the  hidden  and  profound 
significance  of  character.  Unless  therefore 
one  is  purified  by  shedding  sympathetic  blood 
over  the  emblem  of  Calvary,  and  risen  with  the 
resurrection  of  the  Son  of  Man,  how  dare  he 
ask  anything  in  the  name  of  Christ?  Will  cry- 
ing, 'Lord,  Lord,'  avail  on  that  day  when  the 
commandments  about  self-denial,  crucifixion  of 
the  flesh,  faith,  love  to  man,  asceticism,  and 
seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  are  set  at 
defiance?"7  In  other  words,  to  pray  in  the 
name  of  Christ  is  more  than  to  make  a  request. 

7P,  C,  Mozoomdar— The  Oriental  Christ. 


Prayer.  Ill 

And  finally,  the  Bible  view  is  directly  opposed 
to  the  notion  that  the  purpose  or  end  of  prayer 
should  be  the  conformity  of  God  and  his  ways 
to  man.  The  essential  spirit  of  all  true  prayer 
is  expressly  declared  to  be  "not  my  will,  but 
thine,  O  God,  be  done!"  This  was  the  burden 
of  Christ's  petition  when  in  his  bitter  agony  he 
asked  the  Father  to  remove  the  cup  from  him. 
And  the  cup  was  not  removed.  The  Father 
would  not  conform  to  the  Son's  expression  of 
feeling;  but,  instead,  the  Son  conformed  him- 
self to  the  Father,  and  thereby  the  deeper,  per- 
manent spirit  of  his  prayer  was  answered.  So 
Paul  asked  thrice  that  the  thorn  in  his  flesh 
might  be  taken  away.  But  it  was  not  taken. 
Instead  of  the  divine  being  conformed  to  the 
human,  the  latter  was  made  to  adapt  itself  to 
the  divine,  and  thus  the  inner  spirit  of  the 
Apostle's  true  prayer  was  satisfied.  And  so 
ever,  that  prayer  alone  avails  which,  in  the 
words  of  our  deep-seeing  Quaker  poet, 

"  brings  to  God's  all -perfect  will 
That  trust  of  his  undoubting  child, 
Whereby  all  seeming  good  and  ill 
Are  reconciled. 

And,  seeking  not  for  special  signs 

Of  favor,  is  content  to  fall 
"Within  the  providence  which  shines 

And  rains  on  all. ' ' 8 

8  The  Hermit  of  the  Thebaid. 


112  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

The  experience  of  Jesus  and  of  Paul  has  been 
the  experience  of  millions  before  and  since  their 
time.  And  so  far  a  million  facts,  which  may 
neither  prove  nor  disprove  anything  with  re- 
gard to  the  unsatisfying  doctrine  of  prayer  com- 
monly held,  furnish  direct  and  positive  evidence 
in  favor  of  the  view  which,  I  think,  is  the  only 
one  that  will  harmonize  with  the  principles  of 
Evolution  and  of  Scriptural  religion  alike.  It 
is  that  the  prayer  of  faith  is  expressed  in  deeds, 
as  well  as  words,  and  has  for  its  purpose  and 
end  that  God's  will  be  done,  that  is,  the  con-! 
formity  of  man  and  of  all  things  to  the  divine! 
order  of  manifestation  as  far  as  known. 

Facts  show  us  that  such  prayer  is  fulfilled. 
The  devout  farmer  who,  in  firm  reliance  on 
the  beneficence  of  the  divinely  furnished  means, 
prays  for  his  daily  bread  by  plowing  the  earth, 
sowing  his  seed,  cultivating  his  field,  and  then 
in  due  season  reaping  his  grain  and  taking  it  to 
the  mill,  will  not  be  disappointed,  but  will 
surely  receive  an  abundant  answer  to  his  prayer. 
God  will  assuredly  give  the  increase,  will  make 
the  seed  spring  up,  will  send  the  rain  and  the 
sunshine,  will  cause  the  field  to  bear  rich  fruit 
an  hundredfold.  The  business-man  who  prays 
for  success  in  his  undertaking  by  using,  in  the 
spirit  of  confident  faith,  the  God-given  means 
of  success,  being  prudent,  diligent,  persevering, 
and  upright,  will  have  his  prayer  answered 
every  time.  The  mother  who  with  yearning 


Prayer.  113 

heart,  with  faith  in  the  moral,  mental  and  physi- 
cal means  supplied  by  God,  and  lovingly,  wisely, 
untiringly  using  these  means,  prays  that  her 
children  may  be  preserved  from  sin  and  brought 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord, 
will  rarely  have  cause  to  complain  with  broken 
heart  and  tearful  eyes  that  a  mother's  prayers 
are  so  seldom  heard.  Pray  for  health  with  faith 
enough  in  God's  laws  of  health  to  study  and 
obey  them,  and  sickness  will  be  a  stranger  to 
you.  Pray  that  your  crops  be  not  spoiled  by 
the  rain,  by  conforming  your  sowing  and  your 
harvest  to  the  divinely  ordained  order  of  nature, 
and  taking  heed  unto  the  clouds  and  winds. 
Pray  for  peace,  by  following  after  the  things 
that  make  for  peace;  for  faith  and  hope  and 
love,  by  using  all  the  various  means  afforded 
you  whereby  these  graces  are  made  to  thrive  in 
the  heart.  This  is  the  kind  of  prayer  that  is 
heard  daily  in  thousands  of  cases.  It  is  the  only 
view  of  prayer  that  has  fact  and  experience  to 
sustain  it. 

Nor  do  the  facts  prove  too  much,  as  some 
might  be  apt  to  suggest.  While  there  are  many 
who  get  their  daily  bread  and  more,  who  are 
successful  in  business,  who  have  good  crops,  and 
yet  who  are  notoriously  unrighteous,  this  does 
not  prove  that  the  prayer  of  the  righteous  does 
not  avail  anything;  but  only  that  even  the  un- 
righteous are  under  the  necessity  of  praying,  and 
that  they  acknowledge  it.  They  obey  the  phys- 


114  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ical  conditions  of  prayer,  and  therefore  reap  the 
physical  results  in  so  far  at  least.  But  nothing- 
more.  They  can  get  not  a  single  moral  bless- 
ing, no  spiritual  blessing,  unless  they  first  con- 
form to  the  moral,  spiritual  law.  And,  further, 
in  so  far  as  the  moral  and  physical  are  mutually 
dependent,  the  unrighteous  man's  prayer  will  be 
fruitless.  As,  for  instance,  in  order  to  be  per- 
manently prosperous  in  business,  the  moral  laws 
of  honesty,  industry,  temperance  and  others, 
must  also  be  conformed  with ;  or,  in  order  to 
enjoy  immunity  from  disease,  the  spiritual  laws 
of  moderation,  purity  and  the  rest,  must  be 
complied  with  as  well  as  the  physical  laws  of 

^health. 

If  we  would  deny  the  name  of  prayer  to  the 

'  physical  element  in  it,  on  the  ground  that  the 
just  and  the  unjust  alike  practice  it,  then  must 
we  restrict  prayer  entirely  to  the  realm  of  moral 
and  spiritual  forces  and  phenomena.  This  is  at- 
tempted to  be  done  by  many.  But  it  involves 
them  in  a  great  maze  of  difficulties;  and  is, 
moreover,  needless,  unwarranted  by  Scripture, 
and  at  variance  with  our  conception  of  the  grand 
unity  of  the  all,  which  recognizes  no  funda- 
mental and  essential  difference  between  physi- 
cal and  spiritual  forces.  All  force  is  one.  All 
phenomena  are  the  manifestations  of  the  one, 
same  God.  This  Evolution  has  anew  demon- 
strated, and  it  must  enter  into  every  theory  that 
would  receive  its  sanction  and  would  be  consist- 


Prayer.  115 

ent  with  a  more  and  more  universally  recog- 
nized truth. 

Not  less  essential  to  its  acceptance  by  those 
whose  thought  is  influenced  by  the  principles  of 
Evolution,  is  the  fact  that  the  end  of  all  true 
prayer  must  be  tbe  conformity  of  man  with  the 
divine,  and  not  the  opposite,  as  is  supposed  by 
the  view  still  theoretically  held  by  most  persons. 
For  this  does  not  conflict,  but  is  in  full  and  direct 
accord,  with  that  important  part  of  the  theory 
of  Evolution  which  regards  all  lif e  as  but ' '  the 
continuous  adjustment  of  internal  relations  to  ex- 
ternal relations. ' '  True  prayer,  recognizing  the 
uniform  order  subsisting  in  the  universe  as  the 
expression  of  the  divine  being,  and  conscious  of 
its  own  short-sightedness  and  ignorance  over 
against  the  known  beneficence  of  the  divine 
order,  would  not  set  its  own  little  plans  and 
wishes  in  opposition  to  it,  Avould  not  have  it 
changed  in  any  detail  even  for  its  own  seeming 
comfort  or  convenience ;  but  rather  most  earnest- 
ly desires  and  strives  to  adapt  and  adjust  its  own 
wants,  feelings,  and  constitution  to  this  order. 
It  therefore  consciously  fulfills  in  the  highest 
degree  the  conditions  of  life. 

Then,  too,  this  view  entirely  does  away  with 
the  idea  of  any  "interposition"  or  "interfer- 
ence" with  the  regular  course  of  events  and 
action  or  combination  of  forces,  such  as  we  know 
never  happens.  By  making  prayer  itself  a  mo- 
tive force  and  efficient  cause,  it  accounts  for  the 


116  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

facts  observed  and  implied  in  all  true  answer  to 
prayer  without  calling  in  the  aid  of  any  merely 
supposititious  cause  or  agency,  or  purely  hypo- 
thetical mode  of  divine  manifestation;  and  puts 
prayer  into  line  with  the  other  forces  at  work  in 
the  world,  as  a  link  in  the  regular  chain  of  cau- 
sation, instead  of  a  disturbing  factor.  As  such 
Evolution  cannot  deny  it  a  place  in  the  world- 
scheme  as  an  important  factor  in  the  develop- 
ment of  mankind. 

As  itself  the  chief  agency  and  means  through 
which  God  fulfills  prayer,  a  view  which  had  the 
support  of  so  devout  and  learned  a  theologian  as 
Schleiermacher,  among  others,  its  existence  and 
influence  on  earth  from  the  earliest  times  must 
be  accepted  as  a  scientific  fact,  without  which  it 
is  impossible  adequately  to  account  for  some  of 
the  most  important  psychological,  sociological, 
and  religious  phenomena.  Leave  Martin  Lu- 
ther's prayers  out  of  consideration,  and  what 
have  you  left  of  the  indomitable  Reformer? 
Praying  he  nailed  Rome's  condemnation  to  the 
church-doors  of  Wittenberg;  praying  he  sang 
faith  and  fire  into  Europe's  heart ;  praying  he 
gave  Germany  her  Bible ;  praying  he  struck  the 
shackles  from  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the 
world.  The  victory  of  Dunbar  cannot  be  ex- 
plained simply  by  the  mighty  fighting  of  Crom- 
well and  his  Ironsides.  For  the  mightiness  of 
this  fighting  itself  needs  to  be  accounted  for; 
and  can  be  only  as  the  continuation  and  consum- 


Prayer.  117 

ination  of  their  mighty  prayi-ng.  The  victory  was 
in  answer  to  their  prayers.  Not  by  any  inter- 
vention from  above ;  but  by  means  of  the  prayers 
themselves,  which  filled  them  with  such  invin- 
cible courage,  all- vanquishing  pertinacity,  and 
made  them  use  the  means  required  to  bring  vic- 
tory to  their  arms.  The  Pilgrims  prayed  for  a 
free  country,  and  America  is  the  answer  to  their 
prayers.  They  did  not  only  request  it,  however, 
but  they  made  it.  Their  prayers  were  put  into 
their  deeds  and  into  those  of  their  successors. 
They  prayed  by  their  lives ;  by  their  marvellous 
fortitude  and  endurance  in  suffering  and  hard- 
ships; their  diligent  tilling  of  an  ungrateful  soil, 

"breaking  the  glebe,  and  mowing  the  grass  in  the 
meadows, 

Searching  the  sea  for  its  fish,  and  hunting  the  deer  in  the 
forest;" 

their  building  school-houses  and  churches,  high- 
ways and  cities; — their  prayers  were  the  force 
that  made  them  use  every  means  and  gift  vouch- 
safed them  by  God  for  laying  deep  the  founda- 
tions of  a  commonwealth  of  free  men  and  women. 
Can  Evolution  deny  the  existence  and  efficacy 
of  such  prayer?  And  will  the  Christian  refuse 
to  acknowledge  its  validity  and  the  reality  of 
its  wondrous  results? 

That  prayer  should  be  an  activity  of  the  whole 
person  is  simply  in  accord,  moreover,  with  the 
known  laws  of  psychology.  Its  motor-power 
lies  m  what  Sir  William  Hamilton  would  have 


118  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

called  the  Conative  Faculties,  which  "have  refer- 
ence only  to  the  future,  for  conation  is  a  long- 
ing,— a  striving,  either  to  maintain  the  continu- 
ance of  the  present  state,  or  to  exchange  it  for 
another;"  "there  is  a  want,  and  a  tendency 
supposed,  which  results  in  an  endeavor  either  to 
obtain  the  object,  when  the  cognitive  faculties 
represent  it  as  fitted  to  afford  the  fruition  of  the 
want ;  or  to  ward  off  the  object,  if  these  faculties 
represent  it  as  calculated  to  frustrate  the  ten- 
dency, of  its  accomplishment. "  9  As  such  it  in- 
volves not  only  the  whole  mind,  but,  and  as  a 
necessary  consequence  of  this,  also  the  action  of 
the  bodily  faculties  in  obedience  to  the  feelings 
and  will.  ~No  strong  desire  and  appetency  can 
thoroughly  vent  and  express  itself  in  words  alone. 
The  arch  words  of  Priscilla  the  Puritan  maiden 
were  the  words  of  a  philosopher, 

"When  one  is  truly  in  love,  one  not  only  says  it,  but  shows 
it." 

And  all  longing  is  alike  in  this,  that  it  is  never 
satisfied  with  merely  telling  its  passion.  It  must 
do  something  besides.  It  uses  every  means  avail- 
able for  its  fulfillment,  impelling  the  will  to  move 
the  body  to  action.  And  the  deeper  and  more 
intense  the  appetency,  the  more  it  requires  every 
faculty,  nerve,  muscle,  with  which  to  vent  itself. 
Prayer,  therefore,  as  the  expression  of  the  deep- 
est and  most  intense  of  all  longings,  cannot  sit 

9  Lectures:  Metaphysics. 


Prayer. 

still  and.  merely  talk.  Its  yearning  must  affect 
the  will,  and  this  must  result  in  action;  for  as 
Mr.  Spencer  says,  ' '  the  passing  of  volition  into 
action  is  simply  a  completion  of  the  discharge. ' ' 10 
Of  course,  where  the  ability  to  act  is  wanting,  or 
where  the  cognitive  faculties  forbid  it  as  not  prac- 
ticable, the  action  may  not  be  carried  out.  Still 
the  fact  remains  that  volition  and  endeavor  are 
essentially  a  part  of  true  prayer;  and  therefore 
that  prayer  is  itself  a  chief  means  of  its  own 
fulfillment ;  a  conclusion  which,  as  we  have  al- 
ready seen,  is  fully  borne  out  by  the  facts  in  the 
case. 

But  while  the  essential  spirit  of  all  real  prayer 
must  ever  be  fundamentally  the  same,  in  so  far 
as  it  depends  upon  and  is  regulated  by  the  cog- 
nitive faculties,  by  reason  and  experience,  its 
direction  and  mode  of  expression  will  change  as 
knowledge  grows  and  widens  its  sphere.  The 
low  savage  prays  to  his  fetich  in  a  manner  cor- 
responding to  his  ignorance  of  the  divine  Being 
and  order  of  manifestation.  His  prayers  are 
bribes,  promises,  threats.  He  brings  his  offer- 
ings, or  beats  his  fetich.  His  prayers  are  accom- 
panied by  exhausting  physical  exercises.  But 
defective  knowledge  keeps  him  from  exerting 
himself  in  anything  like  the  right  direction.  Thus 
the  New  Zealanders  regarded  sickness,  accord- 
ing to  Yate,  quoted  by  Lubbock,  as  "brought 

10  First  Principles. 


120  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

on  by  the  Atua,  who,  when  he  is  angry,  comes 
to  them  in  the  form  of  a  lizard,  enters  their  in- 
side, and  preys  upon  their  vitals  till  they  die. 
Hence  they  use  incantations  over  the  sick,  with 
the  expectation  of  either  propitiating  the  angry 
deity  or  of  driving  him  away;  for  the  latter  of 
which  purposes  they  make  use  of  the  most 
threatening  and  outrageous  language."  "  The 
ancient  Hebrew  has  not  only  a  loftier  conception 
of  God,  and  therefore  indulges  in  no  more 
threats  and  abuse,  though  he  still  brings  offer- 
ings and  sacrifices  and  makes  his  vows,  but 
he  also  has  learned  that  God  answers  prayer 
through  what  are  called  natural  means.  So  he 
adds  to  his  petitions  the  anointing  of  the  patient 
with  oil,  makes  it  part  of  the  expression  of  his 
prayer.  The  still  more  enlightened  Christian, 
who  has  a  yet  more  true  conception  of  God,  and 
has  learned  more  of  the  laws  of  health  and  cure, 
of  not  only  the  means  by  which  prayer  is  an- 
swered, but  also  the  order  of  answering,  leaves 
his  vows  and  offerings  away  entirely,  and  vents 
his  prayer  in  applying  the  remedies,  doing  the 
nursing,  and  supplying  all  the  conditions  that 
have  become  known  to  him,  for  the  recovery 
of  the  sick.  Because  his  mode  of  expression  is 
different  from  that  of  the  ISTew  Zealander  and 
Hebrew,  is  it  therefore  not  true  prayer?  They 
both  in  praying  did  what  they  believed  to  con- 

11  Origin  of  Civilization  and  Primitive  Condition  of  Man. 


• 
UNIVERSITY) 

Prayer.  121 

duce  to  the  fulfillment  of  their  prayer.  So  does 
he.  And  he  believes  just  as  truly  and  fully  as 
they  that  it  is  God  who  answers  the  prayer,  and 
trusts  and  depends  upon  him  as  much  as  they; 
only  with  a  more  intelligent  trust,  a  faith^intp 
which  more  of  knowledge  enters,  and  which 
therefore  is  all  the  truer  and  firmer. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake,  however,  to  con- 
clude from  this  that  the  expression  of  prayer  in 
thought  and  words  had  no  value.  It  is  not  only 
legitimate  in  all  prayer,  but  necessary  in  most ; 
and  in  some  it  is  the  only  expression  possible  or 
needed. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  legitimate  because  it  is 
natural.  "Out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart 
the  mouth  speaketh. ' '  The  evolutionist  would 
say  that  speech  is  in  the  line  of  least  resistance, 
and  therefore  the  very  first  direction  in  which 
any  deep  and  intense  longing  will  discharge  it- 
self. At  all  events,  we  know  that  every  such 
desire  will  first  of  all  express  itself:  in  speech. 
And  as  the  motor-force  of  prayer  is  one  of  the 
deepest  and  strongest  of  all  desires,  it  necessarily 
follows  the  same  law.  And  it  does  this  as  of- 
ten as  not  without  expecting  or  waiting  for  an 
answer.  Of  this  nature  is  nearly  all  ejaculatory 
prayer.  But  it  is  not  confined  to  this  kind. 
There  is  no  kind  of  prayer  whatever,  where,  if 
the  longing  be  strong  enough,  its  first  expres- 
sion will  not  take  the  form  of  petition  in  words. 
And  even  where  not  articulately  uttered,  the 


123  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

want  and  desire  will  yet  shape  itself  into  some 
kind  of  a  mental  representation. 

The  necessity  for  this  lies  not  only  in  the  need 
of  the  surcharged  nerves  finding  relief  hi  this 
manner,  but  also  in  the  circumstance  that  a 
prime  element  of  prayer  is  its  motive  power, 
which  is  an  important  agency  hi  the  prayer's 
fulfillment.  In  order  to  give  the  motive  a  direc- 
tion in  accord  with  the  dictates  of  reason  and  ex- 
perience, its  aim  and  end  at  least  must  be  defi- 
nitely conceived  by  the  mind ;  which  can  only 
be  done  by  a  mental  representation.  By  this 
our  vague  longing  is  defined  and  made  clearly 
known  to  us,  so  that  we  can  find  and  adopt  the 
means  for  its  accomplishment ;  or,  just  as  likely, 
will  see  that  our  desire  is  not  legitimate,  is  con- 
trary to  the  divine  order  of  being,  and  so  can 
check  it.  Thus,  the  longing  for  revenge  springs 
up  in  my  breast.  It  is  instantly  put  into  defi- 
nite form,  or  even  into  words.  If  I  were  a  sav- 
age I  would  pray  for  vengeance  on  my  enemy. 
But  as  it  is,  I  at  once  recognize  the  emotion  as 
opposed  to  the  divine  law,  and  instead  of  letting 
it  come  to  fruition  in  a  prayer,  I  quickly  sup- 
press it.  Or,  again,  I  have  an  indefinite  but  pain- 
ful feeling  of  distress.  The  very  effort  to  ex- 
press this  in  words  of  petition  defines,  perhaps 
locates,  the  pain,  gives  me  a  clearer  idea  of  my 
want,  and  enables  me  to  see  and  apply  the 
means  for  its  removal.  So  that  my  first  begin- 
ning to  pray  in  words  makes  me  continue  the 


Prayer.  123 

prayer  in  deeds,  by  which  the  fullillment  is 
brought  about. 

~No  special  prayer  could  ever  be  accomplished 
if  it  were  not  first  represented  in  thought,  and 
thus  the  end  clearly  perceived,  the  motive 
strengthened  and  intelligently  directed,  and  the 
means  properly  chosen  and  adjusted.  Thus 
words,  in  the  beautiful  language  of  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh,  "while  forming  no  essential  part  of 
the  prayer,  will  yet  essentially  aid  it,  by 
keeping  the  mind  from  falling  into  blankness 
and  vacuity,  by  instigating  and  guiding  it  in  a 
certain  train — in  short,  they  furnish  cords  to  bind 
the  sacrifice  to  the  altar,  they  supply  a  censer 
in  which  the  delicate  incense  of  our  feelings  may 
be  presented  before  the  Lord."  "  Hence  the 
very  mental  or  verbal  expression  becomes  an  es- 
sential means  in  the  answer  to  prayer. 

This  is  still  more  directly  and  manifestly  the 
case  hi  prayer  for  purely  spiritual  benefits.  There 
the  mental  exercise,  strengthened  by  utterance 
in  words,  "contains  within  itself  its  own  an- 
swer. "  In  a  fever  of  excitement  and  an  agony 
of  distress  on  account  of  the  vivid  sense  of  sin- 
fulness  that  has  been  aroused,  a  soul  gives  vent 
to  its  feeling  in  a  flood  of  vehement,  burning 
prayer,  "with  strong  crying  and  tears"  per- 
haps. Gradually  a  calm  settles  over  the  storm- 
tossed  soul;  peace  steals  into  the  heart.  Its 

«  Method  of  Divine  Government. 


124  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

fervent  cries  have  been  heard,  and  angels  have 
come  to  minister  unto  it.  The  pent-up  feelings 
found  a  vent  and  have  exhausted  themselves. 
The  overstrained  nerves  discharged  themselves 
in  the  very  words  and  cries  of  the  prayer.  The 
whole  system  relaxes.  There  is  a  great  calm. 
The  prayer  is  answered ;  and  not  the  less  truly 
and  really  because  by  means  of  the  very  words 
and  expression  of  the  prayer  itself.  A  young 
man  comes  and  tells  me  how  marvellously  God 
always  delivers  him  from  temptation  the  mo- 
ment he  retires  into  his  closet  and  betakes  him- 
self to  earnest  prayer.  And  I  rejoice  with  him 
and  am  grateful ;  and  not  a  whit  less  sincerely 
because  I  know  that  God  answers  his  prayers 
by  means  of  the  prayers  themselves,  through  the 
very  act  of  his  withdrawing  himself  from  the 
tempting  associations,  of  the  mental  bracing,  and 
concentration  of  the  attention  needed  for  the 
formulating  of  his  thoughts  and  wants  and  de- 
sires into  words.  He  only  knows  that  God  ful- 
fills his  petitions.  I  know  also  how  he  does  it. 
Both  of  us  give  to  God  alone  the  glory.  There 
was  a  boy  who  was  afflicted  with  a  high,  quick 
temper  that  often  brought  him  into  sore 
trouble  and  led  to  much  evil.  His  good  mother, 
who  was  very  anxious  about  him,  wisely  advised 
him  to  make  it  a  rule,  whenever  he  should  feel 
the  first  stirring  of  the  angry  passion,  at  once 
to  retire  to  some  private  place  and  ask  God  to 
help  him  against  his  temptation.  The  boy  did 


Prayer.  125 

so,  and  has  grown  up  to  be  a  strong,  self-pos- 
sessed man,  of  calm  judgment  and  deliberate 
actions.  His  prayers  were  heard  and  fully  an- 
swered by  that  Supreme  Being  who  has  so  con- 
stituted the  human  mind  that  any  sudden  passion 
may  be  diverted  into  another  channel,  may  be 
restrained,  by  the  interposition  of  another  mo- 
tive or  object  calling  the  attention  from  it  and 
directing  the  discharge  of  the  nerve-force 
through  other  media.  The  boy's  resolute  check- 
ing of  his  anger,  and  then  discharging  the  feel- 
ing through  the  exercise  of  prayer,  and  his  doing 
this  repeatedly  and  persistently,  supplied  the 
conditions  through  which  God  fulfilled  his  peti- 
tions and  cured  him  of  his  evil. 

So  it  is  when  we  pray  for  enlightenment, 
peace,  contentment,  for  any  moral  or  spiritual 
gifts,  for  which  we  cannot  pray  in  deeds  but 
only  in  thoughts  and  words.  The  very  framing 
and  utterance  of  the  petition  nearly  always 
bring  its  satisfaction.  They  are  the  divinely 
ordered  means  for  fulfilling  prayer,  and  surely 
bring  as  real  and  true  an  answer  as  is  brought 
in  other  spheres  by  other  means.  Nor  can  I  see 
why  the  knowledge  of  the  means  should  in  any 
wise  detract  from  the  earnestness  and  sincerity 
of  the  prayer,  as  some  hold  that  it  would.  So 
long  as  man  has  wants  which  he  knows  God 
can  and  will  supply,  so  long  man  will  pray,  re- 
gardless of  his  knowledge  or  ignorance  of  how 
God  does  it.  Nay,  his  knowledge  that  the  sup- 


126  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ply  depends  upon  conditions  himself  must  furnish 
will  only  make  him  more  earnest  and  diligent  in 
complying  with  this  necessity  in  order  to  have 
his  wants  more  surely  satisfied. 

Need  I  yet  show  that  the  view  of  prayer 
which  we  have  found  so  fully  sanctioned  by  the 
principles  of  Evolution  accords  also  as  fully 
with  the  principles  of  the  New  Testament  re- 
ligion ?  Surely  this  will  not  be  necessary.  It 
must  already  be  evident  to  all  thoughtful  readers 
of  the  Scriptures.  The  whole  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity is  one  of  self-renunciation,  subjection  to 
God,  absorption  in  him.  Its  constant  endeavor 
is  to  rid  us  more  and  more  completely  of  every- 
thing that  does  not  harmonize  with  him ;  to  put 
off  the  old  man  entirely  and  put  on  the  new ; 
that  it  may  no  longer  be  we  that  live,  but  Christ 
that  liveth  in  us ;  to  make  him  all  in  all.  Its 
whole  heart  is  expressed  in  these  words  uttered 
by  its  Founder  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
' '  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven, ' ' 
and  reiterated  at  its  close,  ' '  Not  my  will,  but 
thine  be  done ! ' '  Subjection  to  the  Father,  com- 
plete, absolute ;  union  with  him  in  thought  and 
feeling  and  will ;  to  work  his  works,  to  live  his 
life,  this  is  the  innermost,  deepest,  and  most 
permanently  abiding  longing  and  desire  of  every 
true  Christian.  It  is  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  his 
life,  even  if  not  ever  present  in  his  consciousness. 
It  must  be  the  really  central  purpose  and  ruling 
motive  of  all  his  prayer.  Not  that  God  should 


Prayer.  127 

change  or  modify  his  divine  ways  to  suit  man ; 
but  that  he  might  instruct,  guide,  and  direct 
man  more  wholly  and  fully  to  adapt  himself 
in  all  his  ways  and  being  to  God.  True  hu- 
mility and  unselfish  devotion  know  no  other 
prayer. 

It  is  true,  there  may  often,  and  often  does, 
spring  from  the  lips  the  cry  of  pain  and  petition 
that  the  cup  of  suffering  be  removed.  But  it  is 
only  the  writhing  of  the  human  nature  strained 
in  the  effort  of  adjustment  to  the  divine ;  it  is 
the  discordant  groan  wrung  from  the  harpstring 
as  the  Master  turns  the  key  to  bring  it  into 
fuller  tune  and  harmony.  The  next  moment 
his  hand  sweeping  gently  over  it  is  answered  by 
a  strain  of  heavenly  melody  as  it  rings  out  clear 
and  strong,  "Nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as 
thou  wilt!"  The  heart  is  itself  again.  Its 
superficial  emotion  is  gone.  Its  own  abiding 
sentiment  and  perpetual  prayer  is  again  uttered ; 
and  once  more  it  is  satisfied.  The  divine  has 
not  been  shifted.  The  cup  is  still  held  to  the 
quivering  lips.  But  the  human  has  been  con- 
formed more  fully  to  it.  The  quivering  of  the 
lips  is  from  eagerness  now,  and  not  with  terror ; 
the  heart  throbs  with  gladness,  in  joyful 
strength,  and  not  with  the  weakness  of  fear. 
With  a  mighty  cry  of  triumph  the  bitter  cup  is 
drained.  The  man  is  dead.  God  lives  alone. 
Captivity  has  been  led  captive.  All  things  been 
put  under  his  feet. 


128  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

And  how  can  we  obey  the  commands  that 
"men  ought  always  to  pray,"  to  "pray  without 
ceasing,"  and  "continue  instant  in  prayer,"  if 
prayer  is  nothing  more  than  a  request,  a  petition 
expressed  in  thought  or  words?  Interpreting 
the  words  of  Scripture  in  the  light  of  the  actions 
and  life  of  the  Saviour,  it  appears  quite  plain  to 
me  that  Christian  prayer  is  something  very  far 
removed  from 

"  That  drony  vacuum  of  compulsory  prayer 
Still  pumping  phrases  for  the  Ineffable, 
Though  all  the  valves  of  memory  gasp  and  wheeze,"  13 

which  too  frequently  is  substituted  for  it  in 
the  world.  Its  form  and  mode  of  expression 
seem  ever  to  be  regarded  as  of  most  consequence ; 
its  spirit  as  a  matter  of  entire  indifference. 
They  vary  infinitely.  But  "it  is  the  same  spirit 
that  worketh  in  all. ' '  That  is  the  alone  essen- 
tial thing.  And  that  is  nowhere  shown  to  be  a 
mere  fitful  and  momentary  up-flashing  of  super- 
ficial emotion;  but  always  a  deep-seated,  all- 
absorbing,  and  continuous  sentiment  or  principle ; 
so  deep  and  broad  as  to  involve  the  whole  char- 
acter, as  to  be  indistinguishable  from  the  essen- 
tial spirit  of  Christianity  itself;  a  tendency  of 
the  whole  being.  He  whom  this  possesses  can- 
not but  "pray  without  ceasing."  Not  alone  in 
thought  and  words  will  it  find  expression ;  but 

13  Lowell— The  Cathedral. 


Prayer.  129 

in  the  activity  of  every  faculty  and  power  of 
mind  and  body.  It  will  indeed  often  move  his 
lips  to  utterances  of  praise  and  petition ;  but  as 
often  also  will  it  move  his  hands  and  feet. 
Even  as,  embodied  in  Christ,  it  made  his  whole 
life  one  long  prayer,  so  in  every  one  in  whom 
Christ  lives  will  it  impel  to  the  constant  upward 
look  of  faith,  and  trust,  and  obedience  to  him 
whose  wise  and  beneficent  laws  guide  and  direct 
it.  It  will  pray  with  the  reason  to  find  out  and 
understand  his  wonders  more.  It  will  pray  with 
the  feelings,  to  hate  and  shun  what  opposes  him, 
to  admire,  love,  and  rejoice  in  whatever  works 
together  with  him.  It  will  pray  with  the  mus- 
cles, to  aid  the  working  of  his  forces  in  the  world 
around,  according  to  his  marvellous  order  and 
laws,  to  bring  its  own  self,  body,  soul,  and  spirit 
into  full  harmony,  unity,  with  him  who  doeth 
all  things  well. 

Such  I  conceive  to  be  true  Christian  prayer, 
taught  by  the  principles  of  the  Bible  and  those 
of  Evolution  alike.  Not  words  alone ;  nor  only 
deeds.  But  both.  Simply  Christian  life.  A 
consistent  Godward  striving  of  the  entire  being 
of  man.  Such  prayer  it  is  of  which  the  promise 
stands  forever  true  and  sure, ' '  If  ye  abide  in  me, 
and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ye  shall  ask  what 
ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you;"  and  of 
such  prayer  it  is  even  more  than  a  promise ;  it  is 
the  glad  verdict  not  only  of  the  beloved  disciple, 


130  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

but  of  every  true  Christian's  experience,  which 
is  expressed  in  the  words,  "whatsoever  we  ask,? 
we  receive  of  him,  because  we. keep  his  com/ 
mandments,  and  do  those  things  that  are  pleas- 
ing in  his  sight." 


V. 

MAN. 


"And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life; 
and  man  became  a  living  soul."  (GEN.  2:  7.) 

"Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that 
which  is  natural;  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual. 
The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy." 

(I  COR.  15:  46,  47.) 

"We  must  acknowledge,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  man  with 
all  his  noble  qualities  ....  still  bears  in  his  bodily 
frame  the  indelible  stamp  of  bis  lowly  origin." 

(CHARLES  DARWIN — Descent  of  Man.) 

"Their  keen  necessities, 
To  ceaseless  action  goading  human  thought, 
Have  made  earth's  reasoning  animal  her  lord; 
And  the  pale- featured  sage's  trembling  hand 
Strong  as  an  host  of  armed  deities." 

(COLERIDGE.  — Religious  Musings. ) 
"No  one  is  more  strongly  convinced  than  I  am  of  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  gulf  between  civilized  man  and  the  brutes;  or  is 
more  certain  that  whether  from  them  or  not,  he  is  assuredly 
not  o/them." 

(THOMAS  HUXLEY — Man's  Place  in  Nature.) 

"In  the  whole  evolution  God  is  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega; 
it  comes  from  God,  it  reveals  God,  and  at  last  brings  forth 
beings  who  rising  out  of  unreasoning  nature  know  God  and, 
distinct  from  him  in  being,  reunite  themselves  to  him  by 
faith  and  love  in  the  unity  of  a  moral  system." 

(SAMUEL  HARRIS— Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism.) 

"Whether  the  first  of  human  kind  were  created  outright, 
or,  as  the  second  narrati  ve  in  Genesis  represents  it,  were 
formed  out  of  inorganic  material,  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  or  were  generated  by  inferior  organized  beings, 
through  a  metamorphosis  of  germs,  or  some  other  process, — 
these  questions,  as  they  are  indifferent  to  theism,  so  they  are 
indifferent  as  regards  the  substance  of  biblical  teaching." 
(GEO.  P.  FISHER — Grounds  of  Theistic  and 

Christian  Belief.) 


V. 

MAN. 

Or  any  ten  persons  whom  you  might  ask  what 
they  understood  to  be  the  distinctive  feature  of 
the  philosophy  of  Evolution,  I  suppose  nine 
would  at  once  answer,  ' '  The  theory  that  man  is 
descended  from  a  monkey;"  or  as  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Talmage  is  reported  elegantly  to  have  expressed 
it  in  a  sermon,  "Away  back  in  the  ages,  my 
ancestor,  they  say,  was  an  ourang-outang,  a  tad- 
pole, or  a  polly wog ;  and  it  took  a  million  years 
to  evolute  me ! ' '  Even  if  this  were  true,  I  do  not 
see  why  it  should  ever  have  aroused  so  much  op- 
position and  holy  horror  hi  the  minds  of  men ; 
especially  not  why  it  should  have  done  so  in 
the  minds  of  religious  men,  who  have  always 
been  acquainted  with  the  declarations  of  Script- 
ure on  the  subject ;  unless  indeed  it  be,  as  Fran- 
ces Power  Cobbe  thinks,  on  account  of  "the 
special  Semitic  contempt  for  the  brutes,  which 
has  unhappily  passed  with  our  religion  into  so 
many  of  our  graver  views. ' '  '  Laying  aside  all 
prejudice  in  the  matter,  I  can  fully  agree  with 
Mr.  Darwin  when  he  declares,  "For  my  own 
part,  I  would  as  soon  be  descended  from  that 

1  Darwinism  in  Morals. 


134  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

heroic  little  monkey,  who  braved  his  dreaded 
enemy  in  order  to  save  the  life  of  his  keeper ; 
or  from  that  old  baboon,  who,  descending  from 
the  mountains,  carried  away  in  triumph  his 
young  comrade  from  a  crowd  of  astonished 
dogs, — as  from  a  savage  who  delights  to  torture 
his  enemies,  offers  up  bloody  sacrifices,  prac- 
tices infanticide  without  remorse,  treats  his  wives 
like  slaves,  knows  no  decency,  and  is  haunted 
by  the  grossest  superstitions;"  2 — if  only,  as  Mr. 
Beecher  said,  I  am  far  enough  away  from  this 
ancestry ! 

But  the  popular  identification  of  Evolution 
with  "the  theory  that  man  is  descended  from  a 
monkey,"  is  wholly  incorrect.  Doubly  so. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  no  evolutionist  of  any  in- 
telligence ever  proposed  or  held  such  a  theory. 
What  the  late  Mr.  Darwin  maintained  was,  not 
that  man  was  developed  from  any  of  the  present 
species  of  apes,  nor  from  any  other  form  of 
animal  now  existing  in  the  world;  but  that 
"man  is  an  offshoot  from  the  Old  World 
Simian  stem,"  some  ancient  extinct  group  of 
beings,  from  which,  through  the  laws  of  varia- 
tion and  natural  selection,  a  man-like  creature 
was  gradually  derived,  as  at  another  time,  by 
the  same  laws,  an  ape-like  animal  was  produced. 
The  former  was  the  progenitor  of  the  human 
race ;  the  latter  of  the  race  of  monkeys.  Mr. 

*  The  Descent  of  Man. 


Man.  135 

Darwin  expressly  warns  us  against  falling  "in- 
to the  error  of  supposing  that  the  early  progeni- 
tor of  the  whole  Simian  stock,  including  man, 
was  identical  with,  or  even  closely  resembled, 
any  existing  ape  or  monkey. ' '  Man,  therefore, 
according  to  this  theory,  was  no  more  derived 
from  what  we  now  know  as  monkeys,  than 
these  were  derived  from  man.  Both  sprang  from ) 
some  other,  earlier,  now  extinct  form  of  being. 

In  the  second  place,  this  hypothesis  of  the 
development  of  man,  solely  by  natural  selection,  ^ 
is  held  by  comparatively  a  few  only  of  the  lead-  j  *"  *" 
ing  evolutionists ;  and  is  not  by  any  means  among 
the  most  important  or  distinctive  teachings  of 
Evolution,  nor  one  vitally  affecting  the  validity 
of  its  principles.  So  long  as  evolutionists  like 
Prof.  St.  George  Mivart  refuse  to  be  Darwinists, 
or  like  Mr.  Wallace  are  convinced  of ' '  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  Natural  Selection  to  account  for  the 
development  of  man,"  and  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  an  "unknown  higher  law,  beyond  and 
independent  of  all  those  laws  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge, "  4  so  long  Darwinism  cannot  be 
regarded  as  a  vital  part  of  the  system  of  Evolu- 
tion, and  it  must  be  granted  that  a  man  may 
be  a  consistent  evolutionist  without  being  in  any 
way  a  Darwinist.  _ 

All  that  the  principles  of  Evolution  do  require  lr\ 
one  to  believe  is  that  the  coming  of  man  upon      *» 


3  The  Descent  of  Man. 

4  Natural  Selection. 


136  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  earth  was  not  an  exception  to  the  general 
method  of  the  universe,  but  was  in  accordance 
with  the  same;  that,  therefore,  man  was  not 
specially  and  miraculously  created  by  an  instan- 
taneous act,  and  in  the  full  possession  of  all  his 
organs  and  faculties  as  we  now  see  him,  but 
that  he  was  developed  from  previously  existing, 
lower,  orders  of  being,  and  then  grew  and  per- 
fected his  distinctively  human  nature  until  he 
attained  to  his  present  highly  organized  physical 
and  mental  condition,  according  to  the  same 
1  order  that  is  observed  everywhere  else  in  nature. 
This  is  the  hypothesis,  in  its  most  general  form, 
to  which  we  now  turn  our  attention. 

Nor  need  we  again  be  reminded,  I  trust,  that 
it  is  not  the  correctness  or  incorrectness  of 
the  hypothesis  that  we  are  here  concerned  with 
so  much  as  the  consequences  which,  if  correct, 
it  would  have  upon  our  religion.  Let  us  remem- 
ber the  wise  words  of  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly,  that  "upon  very  many  questions  a 
truly  wise  man  remains  long  in  a  state  of 
neither  belief  nor  unbelief,  while  your  short- 
sighted man  is  apt  to  be  preternaturally  clear- 
sighted, and  to  find  his  way  very  readily  to  one 
or  the  other  side  of  every  mooted  question." 

The  problem  of  the  origin  of  man  is  not  one 
that  has  yet  been  finally  settled.  JS"or  is  it  one 
upon  which  our  religion  in  any  way  depends. 
To  prove  this,  that  we  can  believe  in  God,  the 
Bible,  and  salvation  by  grace,  just  as  fully 


Man.  137 

whether  we  accept  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution 
or  not,  is  mainly  what  I  hope  to  make  clear. 
For  there  are  thousands  who  believe  that  it  is 
the  most  probable  theory  yet  propounded ;  and 
still  they  are  told  over  and  over  again  that  it  is 
directly  opposed  to  the  Christian  doctrine  on  the 
subject.  They  therefore,  at  least  many  of 
them,  cleave  to  the  former  and  forsake  the  lat- 
ter. While  many  more  think  that  because  of 
this  theory  Christianity  itself  is  tottering.  Per- 
sonally I  believe  in  the  derivation  of  man  from j 
lower  forms  of  being;  but  I  believe  just  as 
firmly  in  the  truth  and  saving  power  of  my  reli- 
gion ;  and  my  earnest  desire  is  to  convince  others, 
as  fully  as  I  am  convinced,  that  the  doctrine  of 
human  development  does  not  oppose  the  teach- 
ings of  Scripture,  but  rather  makes  them  more 
easily  credible  and  intelligible. 

The  first  thing  the  Scriptures  affirm  in  the 
matter  is  that ' '  God  formed  man. "  I  am  aware 
that  for  a  long  time  this  very  general  statement 
was  by  many  assumed  to  mean  that  man  was 
manufactured  something  after  the  manner  hi 
which  sculptors  manufacture  their  clay  models. 
But  this  is  now  everywhere  acknowledged  to 
have  been  a  mere  groundless  assumption,  alike 
unworthy  of  rational  beings  and  degrading  to 
the  Christian  idea  of  the  Godhead.  To  hold  it 
would  involve  us  in  all  manner  of  contradictions 
and  insuperable  difficulties.  It  had  to  be  aban- 
doned even  long  before  any  other  worthy  ex- 


138  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

planation  had  been  found  to  put  in  its  place.6 
And  it  is  now  universally  acknowledged  that  all 
that  the  Scriptures  do  is  to  declare  the  fact, 
"God  formed  man,"  without  vouchsafing  any 
explanation  whatever  as  to  how  he  did  it,  by 
what  method,  and  in  what  time.  They  do, 
however,  say  that  he  did  not  create  him  out  of 
nothing,  but,  so  far  at  least  as  his  physical  na- 
ture is  concerned,  formed  him  out  of  pre-existing 
materials,  lower  in  the  scale  of  existence  than 
man  himself ;  while  of  his  higher  nature,  his  soul, 
it  is  said,  God  "breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life;"  which  latter  expression  I  think 
every  one  allows  to  be  clearly  poetical  and 
figurative.  To  understand  it  as  baldly  literal 
would  be  to  attribute  a  physical  frame,  with 
lungs  and  other  bodily  organs,  to  God  who  is 
pure  Spirit.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  would 
be  impious  presumption  and  contradictory  of  the 
rest  of  the  Bible. 

But  first  let  us  confine  ourselves  to  the  first 
part  of  the  text,  the   general  statement  that 

I  5 1  am  glad  to  quote  in  this  connection  the  latest  words 
of  Dr.  McCosh  on  the  subject:  "No  difficulty  arises  on  the 
theory  of  development,  which  does  not  meet  us  on  the 
theory  of  the  immediate  creation  of  every  new  individual 
and  species.  The  works  of  nature  are  equally  the  works 
of  God  on  the  one  supposition  as  on  the  other,  and  the 
mysteries  bear  against  God  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
The  difficulties  are  swallowed  up  by  the  overwhelming  evi- 
dence which  we  have  in  behalf  of  the  omniscience  and  be- 
|  nevolence  of  God." — The  Religious  Aspects  of  Evolution. 


Man.  139 

1 '  God  formed  man. ' '  Does  the  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion deny  this  ?  I  maintain  that  there  was  never 
a  scientific  or  philosophical  theory  that  more 
positively  agreed  with  it.  Not  only  so ;  but  it 
proves  its  truth,  and  insists  on  it  as  an  absolute 
necessity.  Deny  it,  and  you  deny  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  Evolution  as  well  as  the  declaration  of 
Scripture.  There  never  was  a  more  decided 
and  weighty  Amen  uttered  than  Evolution 
gives  to  this  sentence  of  Revelation. 

We  saw  in  a  former  Study  that  Evolution 
insists  on  a  First  Cause,  "without  whom  was 
not  anything  made  that  was  made."  For  it 
does  not  give  any  sanction  to  the  deistic  notion, 
held  by  many  theologians,  that  this  First  Cause 
made  the  universe  as  the  watch-maker  con- 
structs a  watch,  winds  it  up,  and  then  lets  it  run 
on  without  supervision  or  activity  on  his  part. 
The  Absolute  Power  of  Evolution  and  the  God 
of  the  Bible  alike  are  present  everywhere,  at 
all  times,  and  actively  potent  in  every  movement 
and  every  manifestation  of  force,  whether  it  be 
the  springing  of  the  blade  of  grass  under  our 
feet,  or  the  elemental  storm  that  rushes  through 
the  fiery  surface  of  the  sun ;  whether  it  be  in 
directing  the  course  of  a  mote  of  dust  drifting  in 
the  air,  or  in  guiding  the  endless  journeys  of  a 
million  worlds  through  the  trackless  expanse  of 
space.  Our  "poet  of  nature"  was  as  scientifi- 
cally correct  as  he  was  religiously  devout  when 
in  the  forest's  shade  he  sang, 


140  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

"Father,  thy  hand 

Hath  reared  these  venerable  columns,  Thou 
Didst  weave  this  verdant  roof.    Thou  didst  look  down 
Upon  the  naked  earth,  and,  forthwith,  rose 
All  these  fair  ranks  of  trees.     They  in  thy  snn 
Budded,  and  shook  their  green  leaves  in  thy  breeze, 
And  shot  toward  heaven. ' ' 6 

Nothing  is  uncaused ;  and  God  is  the  Cause  of 
all  causes.  It  is  therefore  no  more  blasphemous 
atheism  than  it  is  unscientific  folly  to  deny  that 
"God  formed  man."  Whatever  difference 
there  may  be  supposed  to  exist  between  Script- 
ure and  Evolution,  it  certainly  is  not  upon  this 
point. 

And  this  is  fully  and  freely  acknowledged 
by  nearly  all  intelligent  and  fair-minded  theo- 
logians   and    evolutionists    alike.     Says    Dr. 
Samuel  Harris,  for  instance,  of  the  origin  of 
man  according  to  the  process  of  Evolution, 
f""  The  fact  that  it  was  a  process  which  occupied 
time  however  long,  and  proceeded  according  to 
the  laws  and  by  means  of  the  energies  of  an  al- 
ready existing  nature,  does  not  make  it  the  less 
4  work  of  God."  7    And  the  late  Dr.   Diman 
eclared   that  "To   hold  that   Mr.    Darwin's 
theory  affects   in  any  way  the  proof  of  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  is  an  absurd  mis- 
conception."      Indeed,   Mr.   Darwin  himself, 
to  say  nothing  of  men  like  Mivart  and  Wallace, 

6  Bryant — A  Forest  Hymn. 

7  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism. 

8  The  Theistic  Argument. 


Man.  141 

repeatedly  speaks  of  the  direct  agency  of  "the 
Creator"  in  the  development  of  man  as  of  the 
rest  of  the  universe ;  while  the  ablest  represent- 
ative of  Evolution  in  this  country,  Prof.  John 
Fiske,  insists  on  the  same  as  strenuously  as  the 
most  orthodox  theologian  could,  and  declares 
that,  while  "Darwinism  may  convince  us  that 
the  existence  of  highly  complicated  organisms 
is  the  result  of  an  infinitely  diversified  aggre- 
gate of  circumstances  so  minute  as  severally 
to  seem  trivial  or  accidental;  yet  the  consist- 
ent theist  will  always  occupy  an  impregnable 
position  in  maintaining  that  the  entire  series, 
in  each  and  every  one  of  its  incidents,  is  an 
immediate  manifestation  of  the  creative  action 
of  God."9 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  supposed 
difference,  we  find  that  it  is  not  between  Script- 
ure and  Evolution  themselves,  but  between  what 
some  evolutionists  on  the  one  hand,  and  some 
religionists  on  the  other,  have  gratuitously  im- 
posed upon  them,  what  they  have  fancied  them 
to  teach.  Thus,  the  Bible  account  was  assumed 
to  mean  that  God  created  man,  if  not  out  of 
nothing,  yet  instantaneously,  and  in  the  full 
possession  of  all  his  perfect  qualities.  With 
such  an  assumption  indeed  Evolution  does  not 
agree.  But  what  right  has  any  one  to  make  it  ? 
There  is  no  ground  or  warrant  for  it  anywhere. 

9  Darwinism  and  Other  Essays. 


142  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

The  Bible  neither  teaches  nor  implies  anything 
of  the  kind.  On  the  contrary,  it  does  clearly 
affirm  not  only  that  "  God  formed  man," 
but  that  he  "  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,"  that  is,  out  of  already  existing, 
inferior  materials;  therefore,  not  out  of  noth- 
ing, nor  by  an  instantaneous  fiat,  but  by  some 
process,  though  it  does  not  tell  us  by  what 
process. 

In  so  far,  then,  there  is  no  contradiction, 
but  a  plain  and  positive  agreement  between 
Revelation  and  Evolution.  Only  the  latter 
goes  further  and  is  more  specific  than  the  for- 
mer. "What  the  former  says  nothing  about,  but 
may  imply,  the  latter  seeks  to  explain.  It  says, 
' '  According  to  my  principles  this  process  was 
the  same  as  that  we  see  going  on  in  other 
spheres  of  nature;"  that  is,  by  the  agency  of  the 
mechanical,  chemical,  vital  and  other  forces, 
acting  according  to  their  proper  laws,  and  thus 
developing  the  inorganic  "dust  of  the  ground" 
until  organic  matter  could  appear ;  this  until  sen- 
tient creatures  could  arise ;  and  then  this,  through 
variation  and  the  different  other  modes  of  nat- 
ural selection,  and  probably  yet  other  processes, 
until  human  beings  came  into  existence.  How 
can  this  be  said  to  contradict  the  Scriptural  ac- 
count? The  latter  tells  us  only  the  fact  that 
God  made  man  out  of  inferior  material. 
Evolution  tries  to  tell  us  how  he  did  this.  The 
two  so  far  cannot  be  said  to  come  into  any  kind 


Man.  143 

of  conflict  whatever.  It  is  simply  as  if  one  had 
said,  "That  house  is  made  of  wood;"  and  an-  X 
other  had  replied, ' '  Yes,  and  I  will  tell  you  how. 
First  they  cut  down  some  trees;  then  they  cut 
them  into  scantling  and  boards;  then  they 
fitted  and  nailed  them  together  to  form  the  joists 
and  floors  and  doors  and  window-frames,  etc. ' ' 
Would  any  one  be  foolish  enough  to  say  that  the 
second  of  these  denied  or  contradicted  the  first? 
On  the  contrary,  it  explains  it,  and  makes  it 
more  intelligible  and  capable  of  being  realized 
and  understood.  Just  as  little,  then,  can  Evolu- 
tion in  so  far  be  said  to  contradict  Revelation. 
It  only  makes  us  better  able  to  understand  and 
form  a  clear  conception  of  the  latter.  At  all 
events,  no  one  need  be  afraid  to  go  at  least  so 
far  as  Dr.  Fisher  in  feeling  that,  ' '  Whether  the 
first  of  human  kind  were  created  outright," 
or  formed  through  the  process  of  Evolution,— 
"These  questions,  as  they  are  indifferent  to 
theism,  so  they  are  indifferent  as  regards  the 
substance  of  Biblical  teaching. ' '  10 

But  even  while  doing  this,  and  granting,  like 
Dr.  McCosh,  that  man's  "lower  nature,  and 
especially  his  body,  may  have  been  formed  out 
of  existing  materials,  it  may  be  by  secondary 
causes,"  "  there  yet  seems  to  many  as  to  him  to 
be  something  further  and  different  meant  by 

10  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief. 

11  Christianity  and  Positivism. 


144  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  second  part  of  the  text  of  Genesis  before  us. ' 
Even  if  God  ' '  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground"  according  to  the  method  of  Evolution, 
does  not  the  added  assertion,  ' '  and  breathed  in- 
to his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  man  be- 
came a  living  soul, ' '  imply  that  God  also  did 
something  more?  There  does  seem  to  be  some 
distinction  intended  here.  What  is  it  ?  What 
is  the  fact  meant  to  be  expressed  by  this  figura- 
tive language? 

It  certainly  does  not  mean  that  his  physical 
nature  he  received  from  the  lower  animals  with- 
out God's  agency,  while  his  spiritual  was,  on  the 
contrary,  imparted  by  God.  The  divine  power 
and  activity  were  equally  displayed  in  both  gifts. 
God  gave  us  our  bodies  just  as  much  as  our 
souls.  Ultimately  both  are  of  the  same  origin. 
Both  are  alike  sacred  and  God-given.  To  try 
to  exalt  the  one  at  the  expense  of  the  other  is 
not  only  unwarranted  by  Scripture  and  science ; 
but  is  derogatory  of  the  only  true  idea  of  God 
and  his  agency  in  the  world.  Nor  do  I  see  that 
the  words  necessitate  us  to  assume  any  essential 
difference  in  the  manner  and  method  of  giving 
the  two  parts  of  man ;  for  instance,  1  >  suppose 

13  "I  am  not  satisfied  when  I  find  myself  and  my  friends 
represented  as  mere  developments  from  homogeneous  mat- 
ter, produced  by  differentiation.  But  I  am  willing  to  ac- 
cept his  [Spencer's]  generalizations  so  far  as  the  physical 
powers  of  nature  are  concerned,  "^-Realistic  Philosophy, 
vol.  i. 


Man.  145 

that  while  the  one  was  given  derivatively,  the 
other  was  imparted  directly  and  immediately. 
I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  suggestion  in- 
tended in  the  language  of  even  so  much  of  a 
reference  to  methods  as  to  imply  that  there  were 
different  methods  employed.  The  distinction 
is  one  referring  primarily,  if  not  only,  to  a 
difference  in  the  results,  the  parts  given,  the 
physical  and  the  spiritual  natures  of  man,  not 
to  a  difference  of  method  at  all. 

That  there  is  such  a  difference  in  the  nature 
of  man  is  recognized  as  clearly  and  as  freely  con- 
fessed by  evolutionists  as  by  theologians.  Only 
the  baldest  materialists  deny  it.  All  others 
acknowledge  it  as  radical  and  essential;  though 
some  differ  as  to  the  degree  and  importance 
of  it.  While  men  like  Vogt,  Biichner,  and 
Haeckel  of  the  Germans,  hold  that  thought  is 
only  ' '  a  motion  of  matter, ' '  or,  as  it  were,  a 
secretion  of  the  brain ;  others,  like  Lange,  are 
confident  of  an  impassable  ''gulf"  between 
thought  and  brain-motions,  and  that ' '  It  will 
be  forever  impossible  for  science  to  find  a  bridge 
between  these  motions  and  the  simplest  subjec- 
tive feeling  of  man."  1S  So  Prof.  Tyndall  de- 
clared in  the  preface  to  his  famous  Belfast  Ad- 
dress, ' '  When  we  endeavor  to  pass  .... 
from  the  physics  of  the  brain  to  the  phenomena 
of  consciousness,  we  meet  a  problem  which 

13  History  of  Materialism,  vol.  1. 


146  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

transcends  any  conceivable  expansion  of  the 
powers  we  now  possess. "  Similarly  Dr.  Mayer 
says,  "The  brain  is  only  the  machine,  it  is  not 
the  thought.  Intelligence,  which  is  not  a  part 
of  sensible  things,  cannot  be  submitted  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  physicist  and  the  anatomist. ' ' 
Mr.  Wallace,  too,  has  always  held  to  an  inex- 
plicable and  essential  difference  between  man's 
physical  and  spiritual  natures.  To  the  testimony 
of  these  must  be  added  that  of  Prof.  Fiske,  who, 
in  one  .of  his  works,  though  speaking  of  "the 
wonderfully  minute  correlations  between  psychi- 
cal action  and  brain* action  which  modern  psy- 
chology is  disclosing, ' '  yet  emphatically  declares 
that  "it  is  utterly  impossible  that  actions  in  the 
nervous  system  should  ever,  under  any  circum- 
stances, stand  in  the  relation  of  cause  to  psychi- 
cal actions  going  on  in  the  mind;"  while  he  also 
assures  us  that  "The  doctrine  of  evolution,  as 
applied  by  Mr.  Spencer  to  the  study  of  psychi- 
cal phenomena,  nowhere  undertakes  to  interpret 
Mind  as  evolved  from  Matter. "  l5  At  the  same 
time,  however,  the  words  of  Mr.  Spencer  him- 
self are  not  always  quite  clear  on  this  point. 
His  teaching  seems  to  be  that,  while  there  is  no 
causal  connection  between  physical  and  spiritual 
action,  they  both  are  "modes  of  the  Unknow- 
able, ' '  and  are  ' '  transformable  into  each  other. ' ' 
How  such  transformation  takes  place,  he  admits, 

14  Discourse  at  Innsbruck. 

16  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist. 


Man.  147 

is  a  mystery  "which  it  is  impossible  to  fathom," 
though  "they  are  not  profounder  mysteries  than 
the  transformations  of  the  physical  forces  into 
each  other.  They  are  not  more  completely  be- 
yond our  comprehension  than  the  natures  of 
Mind  and  Matter."  " 

The  position  of  Evolution  may,  I  think,  be 
summed  up  tJfius:  Mind  and  matter,  soul  and 
body,  are  two  totally  different  phenomena ;  but 
both  the  results  of  the  one  Absolute  Power, 
which  manifests  itself  equally  in  both,  though 
in  different  ways.  And  this  conclusion  seems 
to  agree  fully  with  the  teaching  of  so  orthodox 
and  profound  a  theologian  and  metaphysician 
as  President  Noah  Porter,  who  in  other  respects 
seldom  agrees  with  the  doctrines  of  Mr.  Spencer. 
He  says,  in  his  "Human  Intellect,"  that  the 
theory  which  "the  progress  of  physiology  in  re- 
cent times,  as  well  as  the  more  careful  study  of 
the  conditions  of  certain  of  the  psychical  phe- 
nomena, have  seemed  to  favor  ....  may 
be  stated  thus :  The  force  or  agent  which  at 
first  originates  the  bodily  organism,  and  actuates 
its  functions,  at  last  manifests  itself,  as  the 
soul,  in  higher  forms  of  activity,  viz. ,  in  knowl- 
edge, feeling,  and  will.  In  other  words,  the 
principle  of  life  and  of  physical  activity  is  one." 

That  part  of  man,  therefore,  which  God 
formed  of  "the  dust  of  the  ground,"  is  the 

18  First  Principles. 


148  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

animal  nature,  his  physical  organs,  instincts,  ap- 
petites, and  passions,  which  he  has  in  common 
with  lower  forms  of  being.  That  part  which 
God  ' '  breathed  into  his  nostrils' '  so  that  he  be- 
came a  "living  soul,"  consists  of  his  spiritual 
faculties,  like  the  higher  reason  and  conscience, 
which  distinguish  him  from  all  other  creatures, 
and  are  of  a  higher  order  than,  if  not  totally 
different  in  kind  from,  anything  else  known  in 
nature. 

How  the  soul  was  given  to  man  can  surely 
not  be  a  question  of  vital  import  to  religion. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  very  little  unanim- 
ity on  the  subject  even  among  the  leading  evolu- 
tionists themselves,  though  they  nearly  all  are 
at  one  as  to  the  fact  that  it  was  by  development, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Absolute  Power, 
that  is,  of  God.  Few  indeed  accept  Mr.  Dar- 
win's view  that  natural  selection  was  the  sole 
mode  of  manifestation  by  which  this  Power  did 
it;  but  even  Mr.  Wallace  and  his  followers, 
who  think  that  some  time  at  the  beginning  of 
the  tertiary  period  a  new  unknown  power  has- 
tened and  perfected  the  production  of  human 
intelligence,  do  not  imagine  that  it  was  done 
otherwise  than  through  secondary  causes,  and 
in  accordance  with  the  universal  order  of  devel- 
opment. Mr.  Darwin  himself  practically  allows 
the  possibility  of  this.  For,  while  accounting 
for  intelligence  in  man  by  the  law  of  natural 
selection,  when  he  comes  to  explain  the  origin 


Man.  149 

of  mind  in  the  lowest  animals,  he  has  to  confess 
that  it  "is  as  hopeless  an  inquiry  as  how  life 
first  originated;"  and  of  this  he  speaks  as  "  hav- 
ing been  originally  breathed  by  the  Creator  into 
a  few  forms  or  into  one."  " 

That  man,  however,  after  having  arrived  at  a 
certain  stage  in  his  development,  should  have 
been  endowed  with  new  and  higher  powers  than 
any  creatures  below  him  possessed;  and  even 
that  he  should  have  received  these  from  God 
through  different  agencies  than  any  known  be- 
fore, is  not  in  any  wise  contrary  to  the  doctrine 
of  Evolution ;  but  rather  in  close  analogy  with 
other  observed  facts  in  the  history  of  develop- 
ment. 

Take,  for  example,  the  fact  to  which  the 
words  of  Darwin  just  quoted  refer.  All  scienti- 
fic evolutionists  are  at  one  that  in  tracing  life 
back  and  ever  back  to  the  lowest  organisms,  we 
come  at  last  to  a  point  where  life  stops,  and 
where  there  is  no  conceivable  connection  with 
the  inorganic  matter  below.  No  scientist  of  any 
standing  to-day  believes  in  abiogenesis,  or  what 
is  popularly  called  spontaneous  generation, 
that  is,  the  productiou  of  living  being  from  non- 
living matter  by  any  known  process.  Prof. 
Huxley  says  on  this  point  in  his  article  ' '  Biol- 
ogy," in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  "The 
present  state  of  knowledge  furnishes  us  with  no 

17  Descent  of  Man. 


150  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

link  between  the  living  and  the  not-living;" 
while  Mr.  Tyndall  wrote  to  the  same  effect  in  the 
"Nineteenth  Century,"  holding  "that  no  shred 
of  trustworthy  experimental  testimony  exists  to 
prove  that  life  in  our  day  has  ever  appeared  in- 
dependently of  antecedent  life. ' '  How  then  are 
we  to  account  for  life  ?  We  can  only  do  so  by 
assuming  some  hitherto  unknown  mode  of  mani- 
festation of  the  Ultimate  Power,  producing  new 
combinations  of  its  various  phenomena,  and  re- 
sulting in  life,  or  vital  force,  related,  it  may  be, 
to  chemical  force  and  mechanical  force,  yet  dis- 
tinct from  either,  and  superior  to  them  in  so  far 
as  it  makes  use  of  their  products  and  agency  in 
its  own  manifestations. 

Similarly  must  we  often  confess  our  ignorance, 
if  such  it  is,  in  following  the  course  of  the  world. 
As  far  as  scientifically  demonstrable  Evolution 
requires  a  new  and  before  unknown  form  of 
power  almost  at  each  successive  stage  of  the 
world's  development,  called  into  action  by  new 
requirements,  new  combinations  and  relations 
in  the  environment. 

Before  the  lowest  land  of  life,  vegetal,  could 
appear,  the  elemental  matter  and  forces  had  to 
be  elaborated  through  myriads  of  centuries, 
and  brought  into  such  a  condition  that  vegeta- 
bles could  absorb  and  be  nourished  by  them. 
When  this  was  done,  then,  and  not  before  then, 
organic  beings  with  vital  powers  sprang  into 
existence,  different  from  and  superior  to  any- 


Man.  151 

thing  previously  existing ;  depending  indeed  for 
their  manifestation  on  the  latter,  yet  using  it, 
and  even  capable  of  raising  it  to  their  own  level. 
When  this  had  been  done  for  centuries  more,  and 
vegetable  matter  had  again  been  elaborated,  its 
vital  forces  brought  into  more  intricate  adjust- 
ments, and  its  forms  raised  to  a  high  state  of  or- 
ganization, then,  and  not  till  then,  animal  life, 
a  quite  new  and  still  higher  manifestation  of 
vital  force,  appeared.  It  could  not  have  ex- 
isted previously,  as  it  can  live  only  on  organized 
matter.  Then,  finally,  animal  life  had  to  de- 
velop for  ages  into  ever  higher  and  more  com- 
plex forms,  until  the  highest,  the  new  spiritual 
power,  the  soul,  was  revealed,  again  depend- 
ing upon  all  below  it  for  its  manifestation,  yet 
itself  superior  to  and  acting  upon  it. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  view,  which  per- 
fectly accords  with  observed  facts  and  with  the 
principles  of  Evolution,  as  well  as  with  the 
statement  of  Scripture,  does  away  with  the  un- 
reasonable idea  had  by  many,  that  the  soul  was 
given  to  man  as  it  were  miraculously,  that  is, 
independently  of  all  previous  conditions  and  cir- 
cumstances in  man  or  outside  of  him,  and  with- 
out reference  to  any  of  the  existing  modes  of 
force  and  being.  And  it  also  refutes  the  view 
of  the  materialist  who  would  regard  mind  as 
only  a  form  of  matter,  and  spiritual  phenomena 
as  produced  by  physical  causes.  It  recognizes 
clearly  and  fully  the  divine  origin  of  the  soul. 


152  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

God  made  it.  But  he  used  matter  and  the 
lower  modes  of  force  to  reveal  it,  used  them  as 
conditions  of  its  manifestation ;  he  acted  through 
them.  Therefore,  he  did  not  make  man  a  liv- 
ing soul  in  any  radically  different  manner  from 
that  in  which  he  works  always,  and  everywhere 
else ;  but  according  to  an  intelligible  method  and 
in  harmony  with  the  known  order  and  laws  of 
his  being  and  operation.  Certainly  then  Evolu- 
tion does  not  contradict  or  oppose  the  declaration 
of  Scripture,  but  on  the  contrary  most  fully  sub- 
stantiates and  clearly  explains  the  words,  ' '  The 
Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ; 
and  man  became  a  living  soul." 

Accept  this  view,  and  I  do  not  see  why  the 
most  orthodox  believer  and  most  strenuous  evolu- 
tionist should  not  alike  be  ready  to  do  so,  and 
the  doctrine  of  immortality  follows  naturally 
and  necessarily.  This  Dr.  Harris,  who  has  re- 
cently elaborated  a  similar  view  in  his  work  on 
the ' '  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism, ' '  has  clearly 
seen.  ' '  Once  admit, ' '  he  says,  ' '  that  matter  is 
perpetually  passing  through  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion making  it  susceptible  of  being  the  medium 
of  manifesting  higher  and  higher  powers,  and 
the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  existence  after  death, 
and  of  the  spiritual  body,  is  accordant  with  this 
line  of  thought.  To  what  extent  the  evolution 
may  be  carried  and  what  higher  powers  it  may 
become  capable  of  revealing  no  one  can  pre- 


Man.  153 

diet."  Yet  even  Evolution  itself  arouses  the 
questions  within  us  that  moved  Empedocles  on 
Etna  to  exclaim, 

"  To  the  elements  it  came  from 
Everything  will  return. 
Our  bodies  to  earth, 
Our  blood  to  water, 
Heat  to  fire, 
Breath  to  air. 
They  were  well  born,  they  will  be  well  entombed! 

But  mind?.     .     .    . 

And  we  might  gladly  share  the  fruitful  stir 
Down  in  our  mother  earth's  miraculous  womb! 
Well  might  it  be 

With  what  rolled  of  us  in  the  stormy  main! 
We  might  have  joy,  blent  with  the  all-bathing  air, 
Or  with  the  nimble  radiant  life  of  fire! 
But  mind — but  thought — 
If  these  have  been  the  master  part  of  us — 
Where  will  they  find  their  parent  element? 
What  will  receive  tfwm,  who  will  call  them  home?" 

The  Scriptures  alone  answer  these  questions 
fully  and  explicitly,  questions  which  not  only 
the  heart  but  the  reason  asks.  ' '  The  dust  shall 
return  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit  shall 
return  unto  God  who  gave  it. ' '  Nor  can  it  be 
expected  that  Evolution  should  say  anything 
direct  or  definite  about  man's  immortality.  It 
is  a  subject  that  is  wholly  without  its  sphere. 
But  for  that  very  reason  also  it  can  and  does 
say  nothing  against  it.  At  the  same  time  from 
its  data  and  principles  we  may  gather  enough 
indirect  evidence  to  see  that  the  weight  of  its 
influence  is  all  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  ever- 


154  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

lasting  life,  and  that  there  is  nothing  contained 
in  them  that  need  in  the  least  shake  the  Chris- 
tian's faith. 

Not  only  is  the  general  probability  for  it  which 
Evolution  affords  strong,  as  Dr.  T.  T.  Hunger 
has  beautifully  stated  it  in  one  of  his  sermons, 
in  which  he  says,  ' '  A  living  thing  (like  a  flower) 
under  the  law  of  development  comes  to  have  a 
power  of  self -perpetuation  that  it  did  not  have 
at  first — why  should  it  not  be  so  with  the  life 
that  has  culminated  in  man?    He  is  the  flower 
of  life,  and  in  his  heart  alone  may  there  be 
found  the  seed  of  eternal  existence;"18  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  its  fundamental  law,  that  up- 
on which  the  entire  system  is  built,  the  law  of  I 
the    Persistence  of    Force,  positively  demands) 
belief  in  some  form  at  least  of  existence  after/ 
death.    According  to  it,  as  we  have  seen  already, 
not  a  particle  of  force  can  ever  be  lost  or  anni- 
hilated ;  though  its  forms  of  manifestation  may 
change  almost  indefinitely.     ' '  The  life  of  man, ' ' 
says  Dr.  Carpenter,  "or  of  any  of  the  higher 
animals,   essentially  consists  in  the  manifesta- 
tion of  forces  of  various  kinds,  of  which  the  or- 
ganism is  the  instrument. "  19     Destroy  the  or-t 
ganism,  and  these  forces  simply  have  to  mani-  j 
fest  themselves  in  some  other  way.     But  not 
one  of  them  is  destroyed.     They  exist  as  really 

18  The  Freedom  of  Faith. 

19  The  Correlation  and  Conservation  of  Forces. 


Man.  155 

and  actively  as  ever,  only  that  they  use  some 
other  instrument,  and  in  other  relations  and 
different  combinations. 

There  hangs  a  cloud  in  the  morning  sky.  It 
has  a  certain  amount  of  moisture  in  suspension. 
Now  it  is  dissolved  as  rain  which  falls  in  a  mil- 
lion crystal  drops  to  the  earth.  Would  any  one 
say  that  even  a  particle  of  that  moisture  had 
been  destroyed  ?  It  has  only  changed  its  shape, 
from  a  vapory  cloud  to  watery  drops,  or  to  a 
little  brooklet  running  to  the  sea.  I  am  such  a 
cloud ;  my  life  is  the  moisture.  Whether  I  ex- '••• 
ist  in  bodily  shape  or  suffer  physical  dissolution,  \ 
the  life  is  not  destroyed.  And  just  as  the  sum 
of  the  universal  moisture  is  never  increased  or 
diminished,  but  ever  goes  on  in  endless  routine 
of  transformation,  so  is  there  never  a  change  in 
the  absolute  Power  of  whom  my  life  is  but  one 
of  an  infinite  variety  of  manifestations  going 
on  in  an  endless  series  through  all  the  ages  of 
eternity. 

And  precisely  so  of  the  higher  spiritual  life, 
which,  under  the  conditions   supplied  by  cer-t 
tain  highly  complex  combinations  of  the  vital 
forces,  manifested  itself  as  reason,  conscience,  > 
will.     You  may  kill  me,  and  so  destroy  the  con- 
ditions of  its  special  manifestation;  but  you  will 
not  diminish  by  one  particle  the  eternal  Power 
that   worked  in  and  through  me.     You  will 
change  its  form,  however.     Removing  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  it  depends  for  its  action,  it 


156  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

will  manifest  itself  no  longer  as  thought  or  will, 
as  faith  or  love,  but  as  some  other  force  in  some 
other  way.  This  is  an  ultimate  dictum  of  Evo- 
lution. Not  a  particle  of  that  which  now  makes 
up  myself  will  ever  be  destroyed.  But,  as  the  J 
Apostle  says,  ' '  we  shall  all  be  changed. ' ' 

In  itself,  however,  there  is  not  much  in  this 
general  fact  to  satisfy 

''this  pleasing  hope,  this  fond  desire, 
This  longing  after  immortality," 

that  stirs  in  every  human  breast.     General  in- 
destructibility is  not  by  any  means  synonymous 
with  personal  immortality.     What  man  wants  i 
to  know  is  whether  he  will  exist  after  death  as  1 
the  same  conscious  person  who  existed  before  / 
death.     The  Bible  and  his  Christian  conscious-  ' 
ness  say,  Yes!    Tennyson  expresses  but  a  uni- 
versal sentiment  when  he  says, 

"My  own  dim  life  should  teach  me  this,  - 
That  life  shall  be  forevermore; 
Else  earth  is  darkness  at  the  core, 
And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is.':  20 

"What  does  Evolution  say  on  the  subject  ?  Is 
it  true,  as  some  would  maintain,  that,  while  a 
general  indestructibility  must  be  allowed,  for 
this  no  one  any  longer  denies,  scientific  philoso- 
phy necessitates  us  to  rest  content  with  this; 
that,  if  anything,  it  obliges  us  to  think  that, 
when  the  physical  organs  are  dissolved,  when 

20  In  Memoriam. 


Man.  157 

nerves  and  brain  have  crumbled  into  dust,  when 
that  intricate  adjustment  and  combination  of 
forces,  without  which  we  never  have  any  experi- 
ence of  spiritual  life,  have  been  destroyed,  then 
the  latter  also  must  cease  to  exist,  and  conscious 
life  come  to  an  end?  There  are  those  who 
would  have  us  believe  that  Evolution  requires 
such  a  conclusion.  I  am  glad  to  confess,  how- 
ever, that  nowhere  in  its  teachings  can  I  find 
anything  even  to  suggest  such  an  inference. 
On  the  contrary,  they  do  give  full  sanction  to 
the  words  of  Prof.  Fiske,  who  declares  that 
with  the  conclusion  "that  the  complex  web  of 
human  consciousness  cannot  survive  the  disin- 
tegration of  the  organic  structure  with  which 
we  invariably  find  it  associated,  I  do  not  agree. 
It  is  a  conclusion  not  involved  in  the  premises, 
and  is  one  which  no  scientific  philosopher,  as 
such,  has  a  right  to  draw.  It  necessitates  as 
complete  a  transgression  of  the  bounds  of  experi- 
ence as  any  theologian  is  ever  called  upon  to 
make."31 

And  indeed,  though  we  might  wish  Evolution 
to  be  more  explicit  and  clear  in  the  matter,  so  as 
not  to  be  so  easily  misunderstood,  and  misrepre- 
sented, yet  will  we  not  blame  it  therefor  so 
much  as  the  faithless  hearts  of  those  who  fill  up 
its  silence  with  their  groundless  suppositions  and 
words  of  unbelief.  Listening  with  the  ear  of 

81  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist. 


158  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

faith  ourselves,  we  may  hear  no  distinct  utter- 
ance indeed,  yet  a  whisper,  less  didactic  than 
prophetic,  coming  from  its  direction  to  us. 
Ever,  O  son  of  man,  it  seems  to  say,  ever  hath 
the  great  Cause  led  theeup,  not  down;  from 
good  to  better,  not  to  worse;  trust  him! 

"From  lower  to  higher,  from  simple  to  complete, 
This  is  the  pathway  of  the  Eternal  Feet; 
From  earth  to  lichen,  herb  to  flowering  tree, 
From  cell  to  creeping  worms,  from  man  to  what  shall  be. 
This  is  the  solemn  lesson  of  all  time, 
This  is  the  teaching  of  the  voice  sublime." 

Elemental  forces  are  succeeded  by  chemical^ 
chemical  by  vital ;  plant- life  was  developed  into 
animal,  not  by  losing  any  of  its  higher  functions, 
but  by  having  still  higher  ones  added  to  it; 
animal-lif  e  was  graduated  into  man,  not  by  tak- 
ing from  him  aught  that  the  animal  had,  but  by 
adding  to  it  reason,  conscience,  personality. 
When  finally  man  shall  change  his  form  of  life, 
are  we  to  suppose  that  this  method  will  be  re- 
versed, that  his  highest  characterstics  will  be 
taken  from  him  ?  May,  nay  must,  we  not  much 
rather  believe,  even  according  to  the  observed 
order  of  Evolution,  that  he  will  retain  all  these, 
his  higher  reason,  his  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil,  his  whole  personality,  and  again  have  added 
to  them  new  and  still  higher  functions  and 
powers,  of  pure,  eternal  spirit  ?  Man  no  longer, 
indeed,  but  angel  instead!  The  Evolution  of^ 
nature  prophecies  it.  The  Revelation  of  God' 


Man.  159 

declares  it.  Shall  not  we  believe  it,  hope  it, 
realize  it  ?  And  though,  according  to  Evolution 
and  Eevelation  alike,  "it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be ;  we  know  that  when  He  shall 
appear,  we  shall  be  like  Him ;  for  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is. "  "So  when  this  corruptible  shall 
have  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall 
have  put  on  immortality,  then  shall  be  brought 
to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written,  Death  is 
swallowed  up  in  victory." 


VI. 

SIN. 


"Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law." 

3:4.) 


"By  one  man's  disobedience  many  were  made  sinners." 

(Ron.  5:  19.) 

"I  find  then  a  law,  that,  when  I  would  do  good,  evil  is 
present  with  me.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inward  man:  But  I  see  another  law  ID  my  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members." 

(ROM.  7:21—  23.) 

"This  fleshhood    .     .     .    how  as  a  soaked 
And  sucking  vesture  it  can  drag  us  down 
And  choke  us  in  the  melancholy  Deep!" 

(MRS.  BROWNING  —  Aurora  Leigh.) 

"It  is  astonishing  that  the  mystery  which  is  farthest  re- 
moved from  our  knowledge  (I  mean  that  of  the  transmission 
of  original  sin)  should  be  that  without  which  we  can  have 
no  knowledge  of  ourselves.  It  is  in  this  abyss  that  the 
clue  to  our  condition  takes  its  turns  and  windings,  inso- 
much that  man  is  more  incomprehensible  without  this 
mystery  than  this  mystery  is  incomprehensible  to  man." 
(PASCAL  —  Thoughts  on  Religion.) 

"  Bahnlos  liegt's  hinter  mir,  und  eine  Mauer 
Aus  meinen  eignen  Werken  baut  sich  auf, 
Die  mir  die  Umkehr  thurmend  hemmt! 
Strafbar  ershein  ich,  und  ich  kann  die  Schuld, 
Wie  ich's  versuchcn  mag,  nicht  von  mir  walzen!  " 

(SCHILLER  —  Wallenstein.) 

"O  wretched  man  that  I  am!  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death?" 

(ROM.  7:  24.) 


VI. 

SIK 

No  attempts  have  ever  succeeded,  though, 
strange  to  say,  some  have  been  made,  to  con- 
vince man  that  there  is  no  sin,  or  that  it  is  not 
the  great  bane  of  the  world,  the  great  hinder- 
ance  in  its  progress  toward  perfection.  The  dire 
fact  is  too  deeply  rooted  in  human  consciousness, 
too  clearly  written,  even  in  letters  of  blood,  on 
the  pages  of  human  history,  too  poignantly  felt 
in  the  daily  experience  of  the  human  heart. 
Its  hideous  reality  is  too  patent  and  palpable  a 
fact ;  a  fact  known  to  the  race  as  clearly  as  to 
each  individual  of  the  race.  To-day  we  can- 
not go  where  sin  is  not.  And  in  the  remotest 
yesterday  of  the  past  its  shadows  still  are  seen, 
even  deeper  and  blacker  than  now.  The 
ancient  chroniclers  have  inscribed  its  name  upon 
then1  scrolls.  The  olden  poets  and  seers  have 
pictured  its  form  in  bold  outline  and  vivid  colors. 
While  at  the  present  day  poets,  historians,  phi- 
losophers and  theologians,  still  are  unable  to  es- 
cape from  its  presence,  or  banish  the  dread 
specter  from  their  pictures,  their  records,  theo- 
ries, and  systems.  Nor  is  there  much  difference 
between  the  oldest  and  the  most  modern  defini- 
tions of  what  sin  is.  For  each  one's  conscious- 


164  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ness  agrees  with  that  of  all  in  defining  it  as  con-/ 
scious,  voluntary  disobedience  to  the  divine  law.! 
Yet  there  are  those  who  would  have  us  be- 
lieve that  the  theory  of  Evolution  in  so  far  vio- 
lates the  testimony  of  human  consciousness  and 
universal  experience  as  to    deny  the  essential 
nature  of  sin.     They  say  it  has  destroyed  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  and  therefore  man's  moral 
character  and  accountability.     It  is  true,  accord- 
ing to  Evolution  the  human  will  cannot  be  free 
as  scholasticism  defines  freedom.     It  is  true,  it 
has  shown    conclusively  that  man  is  not  the 
"Great  Exception"  to  everything  else  in  the 
world  in  being  absolutely  outside  of  all  law,  of 
all  those  forces   and  influences,  physical   and 
moral,  by  which  the  universe  is  governed.     But 
it  in  no  wise  denies  the  freedom  and  account- 
ability of  man  in  the  sense  and  to  the  extent 
that  this  was  done  by  most  of  the  early  Fathers 
of    the    Church,    to    say  nothing  of    Calvin, 
Edwards,  and  a  multitude  of  devout  theologians 
of  but  a    few  years  ago.     Did  these  deny  the 
fact  of  sin  and  of  the  guilt  of  man?     On  the 
contrary,  it  was  the  one  doctrine  to  which  they 
clung   with   seemingly  the   greatest  fondness, 
the  one  fact  upon  which  they  dwelt  most  con- 
tinually and  eloquently.     Evidently  in  them  the 
conviction  of  the  reality  and  universality  of  sin 
was  not  at  all  dependent  upon  the  doctrine  of 
the  freedom  of  the  will ;  and  we  might  share  it 
with  them  even  though  Evolution  denied  the 


Sin.  165 

latter  far  more  absolutely  and  emphatically  than 
it  does. 

Moreover,  in  showing  that 

"  Evil  its  errand  hath  as  well  as  Good," 

in  the  labor  of  the  ages  to  bring  forth  the  high- 
est glory  of  God,  Evolution  does  no  more  than 
accept  the  simple  fact  of  history  and  experience. 
The  Bible  itself  declares  the  same  truth  over 
and  over  again,  not  only  affirming  that  under 
God  "all  things  work  together  for  good,"  but 
rejoicing  that  even  "the  wrath  of  man  shall 
praise  him."  It  by  no  means  makes  sin  less 
sinful  to  know,  as  none  can  help  knowing, 
that  it  has  been  and  still  is  among  the  most 
active  and  potent  factors  in  the  development  of 
the  world,  and  that  this  development  is  or- 
dered in  such  a  manner  that  ultimately,  in  spite 
of  sin,  aye,  and  by  means  of  it,  absolute  and 
eternal  good  shall  be  the  result. 
f^TE volution  simply  accepts  sin  as  an  incontro- 
*vertible  fact,  just  as  the  Bible  and  theology  do. 
And  no  less  than  they  does  it  hold  it  to  be  a 
voluntary,  conscious  transgression  of  the  moral 
law  of  God,  an  offence  against  God.  But  it 
tries  also  to  show  why  it  is  such,  and  how. 
When  the  little  child  asks,  "Why  is  it  wrong 
for  me  to  do  this?"  it  is  enough  to  answer, 
' '  Because  Father  has  forbidden  it. ' '  But  when 
the  full-grown  man  asks  the  question,  he  wants 
a  fuller  answer,  and  has  a  right  to  it.  This 


166  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Evolution  endeavors  to  give.  It  says,  "Be- 
cause the  Father  has  forbidden  it,  as  it  would 
bring  harm  to  you  and  your  fellow  men  and  dis- 
cord into  the  harmony  of  the  all."  Does  it  re- 
move the  guilt  of  sin,  and  our  consciousness 
thereof,  or  the  righteousness  of  its  penalty,  to 
know  that  sin  is  not  an  arbitrarily  decreed  thing, 
unaccountable  and  mysterious,  but  that  its  dis- 
tinction from  virtue  is  a  distinction  deep  down 
in  the  nature  of  things,  consequent  upon  the  di- 
vine ordering  of  the  universe,  as  this  latter  is 
consequent  upon  the  very  nature  of  the  deity  ? 
Certainly  not ;  as  little  as  it  destroys  our  rever- 
ence for  God,  and  weakens  our  disposition  to 
abide  by  his  laws,  to  know  enough  of  the  why 
and  how  of  these  to  be  able  to  obey  them  with 
the  full  consent  of  reason,  and  not  only  with  a 
blind,  unreasoning  obedience.  And,  fully  grant- 
ing the  fact  that,  Evolution  attempts  no  more 
than  just  this,  to  tell  us  somewhat  of  the  how 
and  why. 

They  are  questions,  indeed,  that  early  dis- 
turbed the  Christian  Church.  Already  in  the 
first  few  centuries  men  asked,  Whence  came  sin 
into  the  world  ?  How  came  it  ?  "What  is  the 
cause  of  its  universality?  Granted  that  the 
first  man  did  sin,  how  could  that  affect  all  man- 
kind after  him  ?  At  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  the  controversy,  on  this  last  point  es- 
pecially, had  involved  almost  the  entire  Church, 
and  itself  caused  more  sinful  bitterness,  hatred, 


Sin.  167 

cursing,  and  persecution  than  almost  any  other 
question,  with  perhaps  one  or  two  exceptions. 
And  from  the  time  of  Pelagius,  who  main- 
tained that  Adam's  sin  had  no  evil  effects  on 
the  race  except  by  the  force  of  its  example ;  and 
of  the  great  Augustine,  who  held  that  as  Adam 
had  himself  been  the  whole  race,  man  as  a 
whole  must  have  ' '  sinned  in  Adam' '  and  must 
share  his  actual  guilt ;  up  to  quite  recent  times, 
theologians  have  been  more  or  less  violently 
exercised  in  the  matter.  And  theology  alone 
could  never  settle  it.  There  are  questions  in- 
volved in  it  on  which  the  Bible  is  simply  silent ; 
and  which  metaphysics  can  never  decide.  It 
was  really  left  for  Evolution  to  give  to  theology 
a  theory  at  least  as  rational  as  any  before  pro- 
posed, as  fully  in  accord  with  Scripture  itself, 
and  more  fully  verifiable  by  science  than  any 
other. 

It  teaches  that  the  tendency  to  sin  is  heredi- 
tary and  universal ;  that  man's  unregenerate  na- 
ture has  inherited  evil  inclinations,  seeds  of  sin, 
that  will  inevitably  lead  him  to  the  guilt  of  sin  \ 
unless  his  nature  be  in  so  far  radically  changed. 
And  this  is  substantially  the  view  now  virtually 
adopted,  or  at  least  allowed,  by  most  theolo- 
gians ;  and  seems  fully  to  agree  with  the  Bible. 

As  every  other  theory  of  original  sin  must,  so 
does  this  view,  depend  upon  the  fact  of  man- 
kind having  a  common  origin  and  nature.  This 
fact  the  Bible  indeed  both  expressly  declares, 


168  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

when  it  makes  Adam  the  progenitor  of  the 
whole  race  of  man,  and  uniformly  implies,  every- 
where taking  for  granted  that  God  ' '  hath  made 
of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men. ' '  But  it  was 
strenuously  denied  in  comparatively  recent 
times  by  many  prominent  scientists,  as  by  the 
late  Prof.  Louis  Agassiz,  who  was  regarded  as 
a  champion  of  Christianity  by  many.  He 
affirmed  that  there  must  have  been  more  than 
one  original  pair  of  human  beings  to  account 
for  the  great  differences  between  the  several 
races  of  men.  To  reconcile  this  with  Scripture 
sorely  puzzled  theologians.  In  fact,  they  could 
only  do  it  by  the  most  gratuitous  assumptions, 
and  grossest  liberties  with  the  sacred  text ;  and 
even  then  they  involved  themselves  in  all  man- 
ner of  difficulties  and  inconsistencies. 

Deny  the  unity  of  the  race,  and  the  whole 
I  scriptural  doctrine  of  sin,  as  that  of  salvation, 
t  must  be  changed.  But  how  was  this  unity  to 
be  established,  over  against  the  declarations  of 
the  leading  authorities  in  science  ?  Theology 
was  at  a  loss  to  know.  Then  came  Evolution, 
and  showed  the  old  anthropology  to  have  been 
wrong ;  fully  substantiated  and  gave  the  strength 
of  unity  of  plan  and  system  to  the  many 
separate  testimonies  furnished  by  paleontology, 
archaeology,  comparative  anatomy,  philology, 
and  theology ;  and  proved  conclusively  that  the 
Scriptures  are  scientifically  correct.  All  men,; 
white  and  black,  red  and  yellow,  are  descended! 


Sin.  169 

from  one  original  stock ;  and  their  differences 
in  color,  anatomical  structure,  and  mental  char- 
acteristics, are  only  the  results  of  variation,  con- 
ditioned by  their  environment,  the  struggle  for 
existence,  and  the  influence  of  the  various  modes 
of  natural  selection. 

In  view  of  the  fundamental  importance  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  race  to  Christian 
theology,  the  service  rendered  to  the  latter  by 
the  establishment  o£  the  doctrine  on  a  firm  scien- 
tific basis,  cannot  be  overrated.  For,  as  before 
said,  the  doctrine  of  human  sinfulness  depends 
directly  upon  it.  The  Bible  everywhere  makes 
it  appear  not  only  that  our  carnal  nature  is  sin- 
ful, but  that  it  is  such  in  consequence  of  the  sin 
of  our  first  parents.  But  if  the  Negro  had  a 
different  origin  from  us,  and  the  Indian  still  a 
different  one,  and  so  every  race  is  sprung  from 
a  different  stock,  then  what  makes  them  sinful? 
The  first  parents  of  each  of  them  must  have 
separately  fallen.  But  the  Scriptures  tell  us 
not  a  word  about  anything  like  this ;  while  they 
imply  and  declare  the  opposite,  expressly  affirm- 
ing that ' '  through  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world." 

As  to  how  it  did  this,  Eevelation  and  Evolu- 
tion coincide  remarkably.  The  former,  if  we 
interpret  its  picturesque  language  of  oriental 
poetry  in  the  simplest  way,  tells  us  that  when 
the  first  "man  became  a  living  soul,"  a  self -de- 
termining person,  it  was  revealed  to  him  that 


170  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

one  course  of  action  would  be  in  accordance 
with  God's  will,  and  another  would  not;  and 
that  the  latter  would  bring  its  penalty  of  mis- 
fortune with  it.  Then  he  deliberately  chose 
this  course;  he  disobeyed  God's  clearly  under- 
stood commandment.  And  by  this  he  became 
morally  guilty,  sinful;  and  he  knew  it.  By 
that  act  he  formed  for  himself  a  sinful  character ; 
whereas  before  his  nature  had  been  morally 
guiltless,  innocent  and  sinless.  His  sin,  there- 
fore, consisted  in  his  consciously  and  voluntarily 
violating  divine  law.  For  as  the  Apostle  John 
says,  "Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law, "  that 
is,  the  conscious,  voluntary  transgression. 
Had  Adam  not  known  that  God  had  forbidden 
him  to  eat  of  that  particular  tree,  he  would  not 
have  sinned,  since,  as  Paul  declares,  ' '  where  no 
law  is,  there  is  no  transgression."  This,  then, 
is  the  scriptural  account  of  the  origin  of  sin. 

Now  mark  what  Evolution  tells  us.  Accord- 
ing to  it,  as  was  seen  in  our  last  Study,  there 
was  a  time  when  man  had  not  yet  come  into 
possession  of  the  higher  powers,  called  soul; 
was  not  conscious  of  himself  as  a  morally  re- 
sponsible person.  He  was  simply  an  animal 
and  no  more.  Sin  was  therefore  impossible  for 
him  then.  But  in  his  upward  development  he 
at  length  arrived  at  a  state  in  which  he  became 
conscious  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  of  himself 
as  related  to  this  Being.  At  the  same  time  he 
recognized  certain  modes  of  action  as  being  ac- 


Sin.  in 

cording  to  the  will  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and 
others  as  opposed  to  it ;  he  became  conscious  of 
right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  and  of  the 
obligation  to  do  the  one  and  avoid  the  other. 
The  moment  this  point  in  what  Mr.  Spencer 
calls  "that  grand  progress  which  is  bearing 
humanity  onward  to  a  higher  intelligence  and 
nobler  character"  was  reached,  man  became  a 
moral  agent.  He  was  no  longer  a  mere  animal, 
but  a  "living  soul;"  and,  according  to  Milton's 
description,  than  all  other  creatures 

"  Of  far  nobler  sha^e,  erect  and  tall,       .... \»j 

Godlike  erect,  with  native  honor  clad, 
In  naked  majesty,  seemed  Lord  of  all, 
And  worthy  seemed;  for  in  his  looks  divine 
The  image  of  his  glorious  Maker  shines." 1 

This  stage  in  his  evolution  corresponds  with 
the  time  when,  according  to  Genesis,  God  re- 
vealed to  Adam  as  his  divine  law,  from  what 
trees  in  Eden  he  might  eat,  and  from  which  he 
might  not.  When  now  man  deliberately  dis- 
obeyed this  law,  chose  Avhat  he  knew  to  be 
wrong  in  preference  to  the  right,  he  fell  from 
his  potential  state  of  perfect  righteousness ;  sin 
entered  into  the  world. 

As  in  the  accounts  of  the  origin  of  man,  so 
here  again  we  see  that  there  is  no  real  opposi- 
tion between  the  scriptural  account  of  the  ori- 
gin of  sin  and  that  to  be  inferred  from  the  the- 

1  Paradise  Lost. 


172  Tlw  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ory  of  Evolution.  The  latter  merely  explains 
the  former.  The  essential  facts  in  both  are  the 
same.  The  main  reason,  probably,  why  men 
have  so  commonly  failed  to  see  this  agreement 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  writer  of  Genesis  has 
presented  his  account  in  such  a  form  and  man- 
ner as  to  make  it  appear  as  though  the  develop- 
ment from  bare  animal  to  man  as  moral  agent 
had  been  a  single  instantaneous  act ;  he  passes 
over  the  indefinitely  many  steps  in  the  grad- 
uation, and  dwells  only  on  the  result,  the  cul- 
mination of  the  process ;  while  Evolution, 
being  specially  concerned  with  the  process  it- 
self, traces  it  as  minutely  as  it  can  in  all  its 
various  stages.  It  is  less  interested  in  the  final 
fact  that  man  did  discern  God,  and  recognize 
himself  as  related  to  him,  than  in  the  method  by 
which  he  attained  to  this.  Hence  it  chiefly 
emphasizes  the  how,  and  tries  to  show  it  as 
clearly  as  possible.  How  did  God  first  make 
himself  known  to  our  manlike  progenitor?  it 
asks.  How  did  this  creature  first  learn  to  know 
God  ?  And  to  recognize  his  law  ?  And  to  real- 
ize his  obligation  to  obey  it?  And,  then,  why 
did  he  disobey  it  after  he  had  arrived  at  this 
stage  of  moral  responsibility? 

That  individual  evolutionists  in  trying  to  an- 
swer these  questions  should  differ  very  widely 
in  their  details,  is  probably  not  to  be  greatly 
wondered  at  where  there  are  so  few  positive 
data  on  which  to  base  their  views.  It  is 


Sin.  173 

enough  that  nearly  all  agree  on  what,  indeed, 
the  principles  of  Evolution  demand,  that  the 
primitive  man  was  not  at  once  endowed  with 
a  full  and  true  conception  of  God,  but  that  he 
received  this  gradually,  at  first  in  an  exceed- 
ingly crude  form,  and  mixed  with  much  that 
was  erroneous.  With  a  mind  lower  and  more 
shallow  than  that  of  the  lowest  barbarian  now 
living,  he  could  apprehend  but  a  very  little 
of  the  Truth  at  a  time,  catch  only  here  and 
there,  now  and  then,  a  mere  glimpse  of  the  di- 
vine Light.  Perhaps  here  only  the  idea  of  in- 
visible being,  taught  him  through  his  dreams. 
Or  there  the  truth  of  an  unseen  Power,  sug- 
gested by  disease  or  a  storm.  Straightway  in- 
deed this  idea,  the  little  grain  of  truth,  was  in- 
vested with  all  manner  of  false  notions,  was 
accompanied  by,  almost  lost  in,  the  belief  in 
ghosts,  witches,  and  the  low  faith  and  practices 
of  f etichism.  But  yet  it  is  there :  the  recogni- 
tion of  invisible  existence  and  superhuman 
agency  in  the  world.  Probably,  like  the  pearl 
hidden  under  the  rough  shell  and  in  the  ugly 
slime  of  the  oyster,  this  little  grain  had  to  have 
such  a  gross,  material  setting,  else  would 
half-brutal  man  never  have  found  it  at  all ; 
and  had  to  be  so  abused,  else  would  its  true 
polish  and  beauty  never  have  been  laid  bare. 
So  low  is  the  idea,  however,  that  we  scarcely 
are  willing  to  call  it  a  recognition  of  God.  Him 
whom  we  love  and  adore,  from  whom  we  are 


at   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


174  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

unable  to  dissociate  the  conception  of  infinite 
power,  wisdom  and  beneficence,  it  saw  only  as 
dreadful,  to  be  feared,  or  if  possible  outwitted 
or  overcome. 

Perhaps  after  a  while  our  primitive  ancestor 
notices  how  the  powers  that  he  so  dreads  are 
after  all  not  exclusively  evil  and  destructive. 
He  marks  how  the  sun  not  only  fiercely  burns 
and  blisters  him  in  summer,  but  also  kindly 
warms  him  in.  whiter.  The  mighty  torrent  not 
only  dashes  his  raft  to  pieces,  but  also  gives 
him  its  fish  for  food,  and  bears  him  on  its 
bosom  from  place  to  place.  He  begins  to  wor- 
ship seen  and  unseen  objects  of  power  not 
only  as  evil,  but  also  as  good.  Then,  still  fur- 
ther, as  the  human  mind  grows,  experience  is 
gathered,  and  thought  begins  to  stir,  even 
while  still  worshipping  natural  objects,  it  com- 
mences to  discern  an  unseen  immaterial  power 
behind  all  these.  The  principal  deities  are  no 
longer  residents  of  the  earth,  but  denizens  of 
the  air,  of  a  spirit- world  all  their  own.  In  the 
words  of  Schiller, 

"  To  yon  starry  world  they  now  are  gone, 
Spirits  or  Gods  that  used  to  share  this  earth 
With  man  as  with  their  friend;" 

and  they  can  be  approached  only  through  cer- 
tain favored  mediums,  shamans.  If  this  degen- 
erated into  the  worship  of  these  shamans  them- 
selves, and  then  was  transformed  into  image- 
worship,  and  polytheism,  the  processes  by  which 


Sin.  175 

it  came  to  pass  are  not  difficult  to  see ;  nor  that 
it  would  serve  to  add  new  and  precious  rays  of 
the  divine  Truth  that  so  laboriously  man  was 
trained  to  behold.  For,  whatever  the  steps  in 
the  progress,  it  must  have  been  slow,  and  by 
many  devious  ways.  Only  the  patience  and 
wisdom  of  an  infinite  Father  could  have  brought 
it  to  the  stage  in  which  we  ourselves  are 
found,  and  which  presumptuously  we  are  apt  to 
think  of  as  the  stage  of  final  perfection,  when 
perhaps  even  we  are  as  yet  standing  but  in  the 
dim  dawn  of  the  morning,  seeing  only  as 
"through  a  glass,  darkly;  "  imagining,  fancy- 
ing far  more  than  we  really  discern,  and  too 
often  blaming  those  who  cannot  see  as  we  think 
we  see,  and  quarreling  idly  with  them.  ^ 

By  some  such  process  as  this,  Evolution  sup- 
poses, man  was  first  taught  to  apprehend  the 
Divine,  and  gradually  to  see  more  and  more  of 
him,  and  more  clearly  and  truly.  Not  that 
he  was  not  always  revealed,  as  is  the  air  or  the 
blue  sky.  But  our  primitive  forefathers  could 
not  see  him  as  we  see.  Their  spiritual  vision 
had  first  to  be  fashioned  through  the  ages  so  as 
to  be  able  to  discern  him.  Yes,  truth,  the 
spirit's  atmosphere,  filled  space  from  all  eternity. 
But  man,  like  a  little  plant  sprung  from  the 
darkness  and  the  dust,  though  living,  moving, 
and  having  his  being  in  it,  could  but  absorb  so 
much  as  his  earthy  mind  would  hold ;  a  little  at 
a  time,  until  he  grew  in  strength  and  size  to 


176  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

be  a  mighty  tree,  that  rears  its  top  high  up, 
and  feels  Truth's  gentlest  breeze  that  erst  with 
all  its  sweetness  far  out  of  reach  had  passed.  If 
he  thus  was  made  to  grow  through  material 
means,  even  through  means  we  now  despise,  does 
it  not  only  the  more  marvelously  illustrate  the 
wisdom,  power,  and  infinite  beneficence  of  that 
Being  who  was  the  divine  Agent  in  this  won- 
drous work? 

It  will  be  remarked  and  probably  thought 
strange  that,  according  to  the  view  given,  the 
apprehension  of  God  was  induced  and  developed 
without  any  reference  to  moral  law  and  obliga- 
tion. In  our  minds  the  idea  of  right  and  truth 
are  so  intimately  connected  with  the  idea  of 
God  that  we  can  scarcely  conceive  of  their 
separate  existence.  Yet  according  to  nearly  all 
evolutionists,  however  much  they  differ  as  to 
other  details,  the  development  of  moral  concep- 
tions was  not  coincident  with  the  growth  of  the 
consciousness  of  God.  The  idea  of  right,  and 
conviction  of  duty,  came  later  than  the  idea 
of  deity,  and  at  first  quite  independently  of  it. 
And  this  seems  to  be  substantiated  by  the  ob- 
served fact  that,  even  at  the  present  day,  there 
still  are  savages  whose  religion  has  not  a  single 
ethical  element  in  it.  Indeed  we  would  hardly 
expect  it  to  be  otherwise.  The  moral  attributes 
of  God  are  his  highest,  least  physically  palpable. 
The  lowest  mind  could  not  perceive  them.  They 
are  too  lofty  and  spiritual.  Such  minds  had  to 


Sin.  177 

be  educated  and  trained  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree before  they  could  be  capable  of  seeing 
beyond  his  power  and  might  and  be  made  to 
behold  his  goodness  and  truth.  And  this  would 
again  be  done  by  leading  man  gradually  from 
low  to  higher,  from  grosser  to  more  refined, 
through  such  carnal  means  as  the  feelings  of 
pleasure  and  pain,  the  experiences  of  power  and 
authority,  of  usefulness  and  profit,  and  of  ob- 
ligation to  his  fellow  men. 

In  other  words,  by  a  long  series  of  "  benefi- 
cent adaptations ' '  of  the  as  yet  only  half  - 
human  nature  of  primitive  man  to  his  environ- 
ment, and  of  the  latter  to  the  former,  brought 
about  through  the  struggle  for  existence,  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  heredity,  the  family  and 
social  instincts,  and  all  the  other  modes  of  nat- 
ural selection  and  methods  of  divine  govern- 
ment, his  very  instincts  of  self-preservation  and 
self  preferment  were  made  the  instruments  of 
his  gradually  being  brought  to  recognize  other 
than  purely  selfish  ends  of  being. 

To  hold  his  own  against  the  other  beasts  of 
forest  and  field,  and  against  the  fierce  ele- 
ments, he  at  first  had  to  have  recourse  to  cun- 
ning, deception,  and  craftiness  of  every  kind. 
To  overreach  and  rob  them  for  his  food,  and 
kill  them  for  clothing  and  in  self-defence. 
Then  he  was  brought  to  see  that  it  was  more 
profitable  and  conducive  to  his  own  good  to  live 
at  peace  and  in  alliance  with  the  other  crea- 


178  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

tures  of  his  own  kind  than  to  rob  and  kill  them. 
Society  came  into  being,  with  ever  more  and 
more  complex  relations.  Ever  more  and  more 
he  learned  to  restrain  his  selfish  appetites  and 
passions  for  the  good  of  the  community;  be- 
cause thus  his  own  greatest  good  would  be 
served.  Ths  process  illustrates  the  truth  ex- 
pressed by  Coleridge  how,  under  the  divine 
guidance, 


5elf-love  but  serves  the  virtuous  mind  to  wake, 
As  the  small  pebble  stirs  the  peaceful  lake: 
The  center  moved,  a  circle  straight  succeeds, 
Another  still,  and  still  another  spreads, — 
Friend,  parent,  neighbor,  first  it  will  embrace; 
His  country  next,  and  next  all  human  race; 
Wide  and  more  wide,  th'  o'erflowings  of  the  mind 
Take  every  creature  in  of  every  kind." 

Thus  did  God  patiently  prepare  incipient  hu- 
man nature,  curbing  and  putting  down  the  ani- 
mal part,  and  leading  up  the  spiritual  until  it  was 
strong  enough  and  ready  for  the  manifestation 
of  its  highest  power,  the  moral  faculty.  But 
this  would  not  be  done,  properly  speaking,  be- 
fore the  idea  of  right  and  duty  was  integrally 
connected  with  the  idea  of  God.  "Nor  would 
this  take  place,"  Sir  John  Lubbock  thinks, 
"until  the  Deities  were  conceived  to  be  benefi- 
cent beings.  As  soon,  however,  as  this  was 
the  case,  they  would  naturally  be  supposed  to 
regard  with  approbation  all  that  tended  to  bene- 
fit their  worshippers,  and  to  condemn  all  actions 


Sin.  179 

of  the  opposite  character."  a  Whether  in  this 
particular  way  or  not,  we  know  that  early  in 
the  race's  life  it  was  made  to  see  that  it  was 
not  only  expedient  and  profitable  for  man  to 
restrain  his  envy,  hatred,  and  revenge,  refrain 
from  robbing  his  neighbor,  and  to  do  good  to 
his  fellows,  but  that  it  was  a  law  of  God,  and 
on  that  account  only  was  profitable ;  that  right, 
goodness,  and  truth  have  as  their  ultimate  and 
highest  warrant  simply  the  will  of  the  divine 
Being,  and  therefore  alone  must  be  followed, 
even  regardless  of  the  merely  secondary  con- 
sideration of  utility. 

It  was  this  element,  however  arrived  at,  that 
was  an  essential  agent  in  the  perfecting  of  con- 
science as  an  inherent  and  authoritative  power 
of  the  human  mind,  and  that  helps  to  explain 
the  possibility  of  the  process,  as  stated  by  Mr. 
Spencer,  by  which  "the  experiences  of  utility  or- 
ganized and  consolidated  through  all  past  gener- 
ations of  the  human  race,  have  been  producing 
corresponding  nervous  modifications,  which  by 
continued  transmission  and  accumulation,  have 
become  in  us  certain  faculties  of  moral  intui- 
tion— certain  emotions  responding  to  right  and 
wrong  conduct,  which  have  no  apparent  basis 
in  the  individual  experiences  of  utility. 3 

In  thus  accounting  for  the  human  conscience, 
every  one  must  see  at  once  that  there  is  and 

2  Origin  of  Civilization  and  Primitive  Condition  of  Man. 

3  Letter  to  J.  S.  Mill  quoted  in  Bain's  Moral  Science. 


180  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

can  be  no  opposition  between  Evolution  and 
the  Scriptures.  The  latter  say  nothing  about 
it; — though  speculative  theology  may.  They 
merely  declare  that  God  gave  it  to  man,  and 
"man  became  a  living  soul;"  nothing  about 
how  he  gave  it.  Evolution  says,  According  to 
the  observed  method  of  divine  manifestation  in 
all  other  cases,  it  is  most  likely  that  this  power 
was  given  gradually,  after  long  preparation 
and  patient  training.  As  the  earth  was  first 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  vegetable  life,  and 
this  prepared  the  way  for  animal,  and  then 
animal  life  had  to  be  developed  up  into  highly 
organized  forms  before  the  highest  creature, 
the  human,  could  be  formed,  so  in  this  last,  its 
whole  organism  had  to  be  refined  through  a 
long  experience  before  it  was  fit  and  able  to 
recognize  God  and  his  law,  and  its  own  obliga- 
tion to  them. 

Just  as  little  contradiction  is  there,  and  even 
more  explicit  agreement,  on  the  question  of  the 
validity  and  divine  authority  of  conscience. 
Christian  theology  says,  It  is  the  voice  of  God. 
Evolution  declares,  in  Herbert  Spencer's  words, 
14 '  It  is  a  mode  of  manifestation  of  the  Unknow- 
able; and  having  this  for  its  warrant." 

If  we  ask  why  certain  modes  of  conduct  are 
good  and  others  bad,  which  invariably  have 
good  and  bad  results,  the  answer  of  both  is  sim- 
ply that  such  is  the  nature  and  constitution  of 
things  which  the  divine  Power  has  impressed 


Sin.  181 

upon  them.  Therefore  we  must  do  right  with- 
out further  question.  Not  as  the  utilitarian 
says,  because  it  will  conduce  to  our  greatest 
happiness;  but  as  the  Christian  is  taught,  and 
as  Mr.  Spencer  declares,  because  certain  divinely 
given  fundamental  laws  of  our  being  demand 
it,  which  "are  to  be  conformed  to  irrespective 
of  a  direct  estimation  of  happiness  or  misery."  4 
Certainly  nothing  could  be  clearer  than  this. 
And  that  it  is  true  and  correct  is  by  nothing 
more  convincingly  shown  than  by  the  very  fact 
which  the  theory  of  the  gradual  evolution  in 
man  of  the  religious  and  moral  instincts  so 
clearly  brings  out,  that  the  conscience  is  not  a 
merely  subjectively  conceived  notion,  or  a  form 
of  thought  arbitrarily  imposed  by  the  fiat  of  a 
superior  Power,  but  that  it  is  a  deep,  ineradica- 
ble conviction  derived  through  inherited  experi- 
ence, formed  by  the  objective  reality  of  the 
truths  to  which  it  testifies.  The  truth  is  true 
not  because  conscience  tells  us  so ;  but  conscience 
tells  us  because  it  is  true.  Right  is  right  and 
to  be  done,  good  is  good  and  to  be  followed, 
not  for  the  reason  that  conscience  says  so ;  but 
it  says  so  for  the  reason  that  it  is  so.  Even  as 
according  to  Evolution  the  eye  has  been  gradu- 
ally formed  into  the  delicate  and  marvellous 
organ  of  sight  by  the  influence  of  the  light  and  I 
the  whole  outer  world  upon  the  organism,  thus  y 

4  Letter  to  J.  S.  Mill  quoted  in  Bain's  Moral  Science. 


182  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

t  giving  the  utmost  possible  certitude  to  the 
testimony  of  our  vision,  so  the  soul's  eye,  the 
moral  convictions  and  sentiments,  are  but  the 
inner  impressions,  deeply  engraven  on  the 
human  spirit  by  the  action  of  the  outer  realities 
upon  it. 

According  to  this  view,  therefore,  the  very 
existence  of  the  moral  faculty  is  the  highest  evi- 
dence of  its  validity  and  divine  authority. 
"For  clearly,"  to  quote  the  forcible  and  beauti- 
ful language  of  Prof.  Fiske  in  his  address  on 
Evolution  and  Eeligion,  "when  you  say  of  a 
moral  belief  or  a  moral  sentiment  that  it  is  a 
product  of  evolution,  you  imply  that  it  is  some- 
thing which  the  universe  through  untold  ages 
has  been  laboring  to  bring  forth,  and  you 
ascribe  to  it  a  value  proportionate  to  the  enor- 
mous effort  that  it  has  cost  to  produce  it. 
Still  more,  when  with  Mr.  Spencer  we  study  the 
principles  of  right  living  as  part  and  parcel  of  the 
whole  doctrine  of  the  development  of  life  upon 
earth ;  when  we  see  that,  in  an  ultimate  analy- 
sis, that  is  right  which  tends  to  enhance  fullness 
of  life,  and  that  is  wrong  which  tends  to  detract 
from  fullness  of  life, — we  then  see  that  the  dis- 
tinction between  right  and  wrong  is  rooted  in 
the  deepest  foundations  of  the  universe;  we 
see  that  the  very  same  forces,  subtle  and  ex- 
quisite and  profound,  which  brought  upon  the 
scene  the  primal  germs  of  life  and  caused  them 
to  unfold,  which  through  countless  ages  of  strug- 


Sin.  183 

gle  and  death  have  cherished  the  life  that  could 
live  more  perfectly  and  destroyed  the  life  that 
could  live  less  perfectly,  until  Humanity,  with 
all  its  hopes  and  fears  and  aspirations,  has  come 
into  being  as  the  crown  of  all  this  stupendous 
work, — we  see  that  these  very  same  subtle  and 
exquisite  forces  have  wrought  into  the  very 
fibres  of  the  universe  those  principles  of  right 
living  which  it  is  man's  highest  function  to  put 
into  practice.  The  theoretical  sanction  thus 
given  to  right  living  is  incomparably  the  most 
powerful  that  has  ever  been  assigned  in  any 
philosophy  of  ethics.  Human  responsibility  is 
made  more  strict  and  solemn  than  ever,  when 
the  eternal  Power  that  lives  in  every  event  of 
the  universe  is  thus  seen  to  be  in  the  deepest 
possible  sense  the  author  of  the  moral  law  that 
should  guide  our  lives,  and  in  obedience  to  which 
lies  our  only  guarantee  of  the  happiness  which 
is  incorruptible, — which  neither  inevitable  mis- 
fortune nor  unmerited  obloquy  can  ever  take 
away. ' ' 6 

I  have  dwelt  upon  this  point  in  some  detail, 
because  it  is  the  one  most  violently  attacked  by 
many  as  failing  to  make  sin  really  sinful,  and 
because  it  is  necessary  to  the  proper  comprehen- 
sion of  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  which  Script- 
ure has  always  insisted  upon,  but  theology  too 
often  failed  to  explain  in  rational  manner. 

6  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist, 


184  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

It  is  asserted  even  by  writers  like  Miss  Cobbe 
that  according  to  such  a  theory  of  the  origin 
of  our  moral  faculty  as  is  given  by  Evolution, 
"  We  may  regret  our  imprudence,  but  it  is  quite 
impossible  we  should  ever  again  feel  penitence 
for  a  sin. "  It  is  spoken  of  as  "supplying  us  at 
the  utmost  with  a  plausible  theory  for  the  ex- 
planation of  our  preference  for  some  acts  as 
more  useful  than  others,  but  utterly  failing  to 
suggest  a  reason  for  that  which  is  the  real 
phenomenon  to  be  accounted  for, — namely,  our 
sense  of  the  sacred  obligation  of  rightfulness, 
over  and  above,  or  apart  from  utility . ' ' 6 

There  is  force  in  these  objections.  When  I 
see  men  deliberately  sacrificing  their  reputation, 
their  comforts,  their  health,  their  life  itself  out 
of  noble  loyalty  to  the  Right,  in  simple  obedi- 
ence to  the  authoritative  OUGHT  uttered  by  a  still 
small  voice  within  their  breast;  when  I  hear 
the  heart-rending  groans  of  intense  agony  wrung 
by  remorse  for  a  wrong  action  from  strong  men 
who  could  be  torn  limb  from  limb  by  wild  beasts 
without  ever  letting  an  expression  of  pain  es- 
cape them; — I  too  feel  that  "the  experiences  of 
utility,  organized  and  consolidated  through  all 
past  generations  of  the  human  race,"  are  in- 
adequate to  satisfactorily  explain  the  facts. 
With  Mr.  Darwin  I  ask,  "Why  should  a  man 
feel  that  he  ought  to  obey  one  instinctive  feel- 

6  Darwinism  in  Morals,  etc. 


Sin.  185 

ing  rather  than  another?  Why  does  he  bitterly 
regret,  if  he  has  yielded  to  the  strong  sense  of 
self-preservation,  and  has  not  risked  his  life  to 
save  that  of  a  f  ello  \v  -  creature  ? " 7  But  Mr.  Dar- 
win's  explanation  satisfies  me  even  less  than 
Mr.  Spencer's.  The  satisfaction  and  banish- 
ment of  the  temporary  selfish  instinct  and  re- 
turn to  consciousness  of  the  permanent  social 
one,  does  not  account  for  all  involved  in  the 
case.  Nor  does  Sir  John  Lubbock's  theory  that 
authority  is  the  origin,  and  utility  the  criterion, 
of  virtue,  seem  to  me  to  explain  any  better  the 
facts  to  be  accounted  for. 

"While  all  these  theories  may  serve  to  show  us 
how  the  knowledge  of  right  and  wrong,  of  good 
and  evil,  was  given  to  man  in  the  ages-long 
training  under  God's  hand,  I  am  free  to  confess 
that,  in  themselves,  they  do  not  account  for 
the  existence,  the  authority,  the  power  of  the 
sense  of  duty  and  obligation,  of  guilt  and  sin, 
which  accompany  this  knowledge.  Inherited 
experience,  association  of  ideas,  authority, 
training, — all  these  may  have  helped;  but  there 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  something  more 
needed  to  produce  those  "nervous  modifica- 
tions" which  make  virtue  obligatory  and  vice 
a  sin  for  us.  These  feelings,  and  they  are 
more  than  ordinary  feeling,  seem  to  me  to 
point  to  a  closer,  more  vital  and  immediate, 

7  The  Descent  of  Man. 


186  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

connection  between  the  absolute  Eight  and 
Good  One,  and  his  reflections  in  the  human 
spirit,  than  has  yet  been  pointed  out,  or  per- 
haps yet  can  be  definitely  traced.  It  takes 
long  and  patient  culture  and  training  till  the 
ear  and  the  eye  are  brought  to  recognize  the 
harmony  of  sounds  and  of  colors.  But  that 
stage  once  reached,  and  every  tuneful  chord, 
each  beauteous  blending  tint,  causes  an  an- 
swering thrill  of  joy  in  the  soul,  each  discord 
a  quiver  of  pain.  It  is  different  from  the  mere 
knowledge  of  what  is  correct.  It  is  more  than 
that.  It  is  an  addition  to  it.  So  may  it  have 
taken  generations  and  long  centuries  of  time  to 
bring  the  human  spirit  to  recognize  its  inner 
deep  affinity  with  the  divine.  But  once  real- 
ized, from  the  very  blending  of  the  two,  may 
not  the  OUGHT  be  but  the  sympathetic  bond, 
the  divine  force  that  binds  spirit  to  spirit,  the 
thrill  of  harmony  vibrating  through  both? 
And  the  deep  sense  of  sin,  the  moral  discord, 
the  clash  and  the  pain  of  rupture  between  them  ? 
OUGHT  the  force  that  draws  and  binds  steel  to 
magnet ;  SIN  the  violence  that  separates  them, 
even  while  they  strain  for  union. e 

And,  further,  may  not  this  fact,  so  intensely 
real  as  to  belong  to  the  very  constitution  of  the 
universe,  and  yet  so  inexplicable  as  in  itself  to 

8  A  very  suggestive  paper  on  "  The  Evolution  of  Con- 
science," by  the  Rev.  F.  H.  Johnson,  appeared  in  the  An- 
dover  Review,  vol.  ii. 


Sin.  187 

suggest  some  essential  connection  with  the 
being  and  nature  of  him  who  is  past  finding 
out, — may  not  the  imperative  demands  of  duty 
and  the  pleasure  of  meeting  the  demand,  as 
well  as  the  painful  guilt  of  disobedience,  them- 
selves be  a  faint  foreshadowing,  nay,  an  ear- 
nest, and  actual  foretaste  of  life  in  another, 
higher  stage  of  existence?  When  there  shall 
be  no  longer  any  material,  fleshly  hinderances 
to  a  complete,  harmonious  union  between  pure 
souls  and  the  absolute  Spirit,  will  not  the  still 
small  voice,  whose  broken  whispers  even  now 
are  sweet  as  angels'  kisses,  break  forth  into  a 
fullness  of  ecstatic  joy  stronger  than  any 
seraph's  shout,  glorious  as  the  eternal  music  of 
the  spheres,  itself  a  note  in  the  infinite  har- 
mony of  the  all?  And  if  even  now  each  tem- 
porary rupture  of  our  soul  from  the  Absolute, 
each  single  act  of  discord,  brings  the  anguish 
of  remorse  to  rend  our  heart,  when  that  rupture 
shall  have  become  permanent,  that  discord 
eternal, — what  then? 

But  all  mere  speculation  aside;  whether  we 
think  that  the  evolutionists'  theory  of  the 
origin  of  conscience  and  sin  be  correct,  or 
whether  we  deem  it  inadequate,  it  does  not  in 
the  slighest  degree  affect  the  Christian  doctrine 
on  the  subject.  If  it  does  not  fully  account 
for  all  the  observed  facts,  especially  the  emo- 
tional accompaniments  of  the  moral  judgments, 
this  does  not  invalidate  the  entire  theory.  And 


188  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

we  may  ask,  what  theory  on  the  subject  does 
entirely  satisfy  the  reason?  Whereas  if  we  do 
accept  it,  we  have  the  assurance  of  the  most 
thoughtful  and  devout  theologians  that  our 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  of  merit  and  sin, 
will  not  in  the  least  be  weakened  thereby. 
"Whether  the  moral  sense  is  a  faculty  im- 
planted in  man  by  a  supreme  intelligence," 
declares  one  from  whom  I  have  already  quoted, 
"or  whether  the  moral  sense  is  the  result  of  a 
long  process  of  development  which  a  supreme 
intelligence  has  designed  and  superintended, 
are  questions  which  do  not  in  the  least  affect 
the  authority  of  conscience,  or  the  validity  of 
the  distinctions  which  it  shows." 

So  long  as  the  Bible  and  Evolution  agree 
as  fully  as  they  do  in  holding  sin  to  be  a 
willful  transgression  of  God's  law,  and  con- 
science an  authoritative  voice  from  God  which 
we  ought  to  follow,  there  can  be  no  conflict 
between  them.  The  essential  facts  in  the 
matter  they  equally  acknowledge.  It  is  only 
on  the  explanation  of  the  facts  that  they 
differ;  or  rather,  the  Bible  simply  accepts  the 
facts,  and  nothing  more,  while  Evolution  ac- 
cepts the  facts  no  less  fully,  but  tries  also  to 
account  for  them.  Whether  we  think  that  it 
succeeds  in  this  or  not,  really  makes  very  little 
difference. 

9  Diman— The  Theistic  Argument. 


Sin.  189 

One  thing,  however,  must  I  think  be  granted, 
that  on  no  other  theory  than  that  of  Evolution 
can  the  Bible  teaching  with  reference  to  orig- 
inal sin  be  as  naturally,  rationally,  and  there- 
fore satisfactorily  explained.  Why  is  it,  if  man 
was  originally  created  in  the  full  possession  of 
his  perfected  spiritual,  moral,  faculties,  that  we 
yet,  as  Paul  says,  "see  another  law  in  our 
members,  warring  against  the  law  of  our  mind, 
and  bringing  us  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin 
which  is  in  our  members?"  It  seems  impossi- 
ble that  the  one  act  of  transgression  of  our  first 
parents  should  have  been  capable  of  so  totally 
and  permanently  eradicating  the  original  moral 
excellences,  and  warping  all  human  nature 
forever,  as  we  must  believe  if  the  first  man  was 
fully  developed  and  completely  equipped  in 
body  and  soul. 

According  to  Evolution,  however,  all  this 
becomes  plain.  The  "law  in  our  members 
warring  against  the  law  of  our  mind"  is  simply 
our  animal  nature  received  from  our  brute  an- 
cestors. The  same  forces  of  heredity  through 
which  the  innate  power  of  conscience  was 
formed  and  is  transmitted,  also  transmit  from 
generation  to  generation  the  selfish  appetites, 
desires,  passions,  and  mental  habits  that  were 
engendered  and  so  largely  developed  in  the 
ante-human  state  of  our  race -existence.  They 
are  part  of  our  earliest  formed  nature,  derived 
by  inheritance  from  our  remote  animal  ances- 


190  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

tors.  What  is  the  love  of  power  and  conquest 
that  leads  nation  to  war  against  nation,  and 
shed  the  blood  of  thousands,  but  the  self-same 
motive,  inherited  from  primitive  man,  that  led 
him  and  his  companions  with  club  and  spear 
to  fall  upon  their  weaker  neighboring  village, 
to  pillage  its  huts,  and  murder  its  inhabitants 
or  hold  them  in  cruel  slavery?  A  remnant  of 
the  same  disposition  it  is  that  makes  men  de- 
light in  military  maneuvers  and  sham  battles, 
that  gives  a  charm  to  perilous  adventures,  and 
even  a  certain  enjoyment  to  the  reading  at  least 
of  glowing  accounts  of  brutal  prize-fights.  The 
tendency  to  gloat  over  a  struggle  and  rejoice 
with  the  stronger ;  the  strange  fascination  which 
scenes  of  bloodshed  and  cruelty  still  exercise 
over  many ; — they  are  the  relics  in  our  carnal 
nature  of  those  primitive  times  when  such 
struggles  and  scenes  were  the  necessary  con- 
ditions of  existence.  What  is  the  prevalence 
of  gluttony,  drunkenness,  immorality  and  adul- 
tery, that  shows  itself  in  so  many  ways,  open 
and  disguised,  in  modern  society,  but  a  proof 
of  the  still  potent  influence  of  those  bestial  in- 
stincts that  once  dominated  semi-human  man? 
And  similarly  in  every  individual  do  we  see 
the  same  illustrated.  The  animal  greed  that 
was  developed  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and 
then  served  a  purpose,  still  shows  itself,  only 
slightly  modified,  in  the  grasping  disposition  of 
the  child  that  quickly  reaches  for  the  largest 


Sin.  191 

piece  of  cake  on  the  table;  in  the  senseless 
avarice  of  the  miser  hoarding  his  shining  gold ; 
and  in  the  eager  anxiety  of  the  monopolist  to 
amass  ever  more  and  new  millions.  In  these 
the  greedy  tendency  has  no  rational  purpose. 
They  simply  follow  a  blind,  inherited  inclina- 
tion. So  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  that 
impelled  man  in  the  savage  state  to  return  blow 
for  blow,  and  to  hunt  his  enemy  to  the  death, 
still  shows  itself  in  us,  though  no  longer  needed 
for  our  own  safety  or  for  any  other  purpose,  in 
the  anger  we  feel  at  any  affront,  the  instinctive 
disposition  to  return  blow  for  blow  and  insult 
for  insult,  the  feeling  of  revenge,  and  the  un- 
forgiving temper  displayed  by  too  many. 

All  such  feelings,  emotions  and  sentiments  of 
selfishness,  which  spring  from  a  regard  for  self 
and  have  in  view  the  preferment  and  advan- 
tage of  self,  are  not  considered  sinful  in  brutes. 
They  know  nothing  higher,  and  have  no  obli- 
gations to  any  higher  law.  But  since 

"  Tis  the  sublime  of  man, 
Our  noontide  majesty,  to  know  ourselves 
Parts  and  proportions  of  one  wondrous  whole,"  10 

since  the  higher  life  and  law  of  right,  goodness, 
and  truth  have  been  revealed  to  us,  obedience 
to  our  former  lower  mode  of  life  is  sinful.  God 
has  shown  man  a  better  way;  led  him  into 
new  relations,  to  behold  a  higher  order  of 

10  Coleridge — Religious  Musings. 


192  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

divine  manifestation,  cultivated  new  views  of 
life,  new  feelings,  new  aims  and  aspirations; 
aroused  in  him  what  we  call  the  religious  and 
moral  consciousness.  From  the  moment  the 
law  of  unselfishness  was  recognized  as  divine, 
man  sinned,  wronged  God  and  his  law,  every 
time  he  yielded  to  the  temptations  of  the  old 
unmoral  nature.  He  knows  that  self  is  no 
longer  his  guide  or  authority ;  but  God.  Self- 
ish interests  no  longer  his  aim;  but  the  right. 
Yet  none  the  less  do  all  the  feelings  and  in- 
stincts, the  organic  habits,  of  his  carnal  nature 
still  throb  and  glow  and  struggle  within  him, 
ever  tempting  him  to  disobey  the  moral  law, 
to  live  for  self  and  not  for  God. 

Who  has  not  often  marvelled  at  this  strange 
and  dire  conflict  that  is  ever  going  on  within 
him?  Theology  has  never  vouchsafed  a  clear 
explanation  whence  this  might  be.  The  doc- 
trine of  original  sinfulness  has  ever  been  a  dark 
and  mysterious  one.  If  Evolution  has  not  ab- 
solutely solved  it,  it  has  at  least  not  increased 
the  difficulty,  nor  contradicted  any  known 
facts  in  the  case,  but  rather  given  a  view  of  it 
that,  in  my  estimation  at  least,  accords  more 
nearly  with  the  Christian  doctrine  as  found  in 
the  Bible  than  any  other,  goes  farther  toward 
making  it  comprehensible,  and  arouses  no  new 
difficulties,  as  too  many  other  theories  do,  with 
reference  to  man's  individual  responsibility,  and 
God's  power,  wisdom,  and  beneficence. 


Sin.  193 

Finally,  in  the  practical  application  of  the 
doctrine,  Evolution  adds  not  a  little  force  and 
power  to  it.  Eecognizing  that  sin  is  a  relic  of 
our  low  and  bestial  ancestors,  the  sinner  can 
at  least  no  longer  pride  himself  on  superiority 
over  his  virtuous  neighbor.  It  is  no  little  ad- 
vantage in  dealing  with  the  former  to  be  able 
to  point  to  the  verdict  of  science  as  well  as  the 
Bible,  and  show  him  that  sin  is  invariably  a 
sign  of  degradation,  of  reversal  to  a  former 
lower  type  of  being  and  inferior  grade  of  hu- 
manity ;  to  prove  thus  doubly  to  him  that  the 
highest  manhood  is  the  most  virtuous.  Char- 
acter is  the  sole  standard  of  judgment.  The 
brawny  prize-fighter,  strong  as  an  ox,  is  less  of 
a  man  than  the  weakest  child  that  cherishes 
mercy,  tenderness,  and  pity  in  its  heart,  the 
mightiest  conqueror,  sacrificing  the  lives  of 
thousands  of  his  fellow  men  to  his  ambition,  is 
far  less  heroic  and  great  than  the  poorest 
woman  who  at  the  wash-tub  sacrifices  her  own 
comfort,  health,  and  life  itself  for  the  suste- 
nance and  happiness  of  her  family.  This  is  no 
longer  mere  ' '  pious  sentimentality. "  It  is  the 
sober  verdict  of  pure  science  itself.  Christ  said, 
and  Evolution  fully  explains  and  corroborates 
it,  that  "whosoever  will  be  great  among  you, 
let  him  be  your  minister;  and  whosoever  will 
be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant. ' ' 
To  live  for  others  is  the  highest  manhood.  To 
live  only  for  self  is  sinful  and  animal. 
7 


194  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

And  do  not  the  Bible  and  Evolution  unite 
their  voices  into  one  also  in  pronouncing  Wo ! 
upon  every  one  that  yields  to  sin,  and  thus 
helps  to  retard  that  perfect  "equilibrium  be- 
tween constitution  and  conditions  of  existence, 
which  is  at  once  the  moral  ideal  and  the  limit 
towards  which  we  are  progressing?"  "  Sin  is  not 
a  violation  only  of  one  set  of  divine  laws,  dis- 
tinct and  separate  from  all  others.  The  moral 
and  the  physical  laws  have  one  Source,  and  at 
bottom  themselves  are  one.  Violate  the  moral 
law,  and  you  offend  against  the  whole  system 
that  governs  the  universe.  With  the  same 
inexorable  certainty  with  which  the  penalty 
follows  the  transgression  of  the  physical  laws 
of  that  system,  of  devastating  floods  for  denud- 
ing the  mountains  of  their  timber,  of  sickness 
for  breaking  the  laws  of  health,  of  pain  for 
holding  your  hand  in  the  fire, — so  inevitably 
must  it  follow  every  breach  of  the  moral,  or 
any  other,  law  in  that  system.  For  all  are  in- 
extricably connected.  All  are  interdependent 
and  interacting  portions  of  one  body. 

And  not  only  in  the  life  to  come  will  every 
sin  be  punished ;  but  here  in  this  life  as  well. 
"It  is  useless  projecting  consequences  into  the 
future  when  the  effects  may  be  measured  now, ' ' 
says  the  eminent  Christian  scientist,  Prof. 
Drummond;  and  then  only  too  truly  adds, 

»  The  Study  of  Sociology.    Cf .  The  Data  of  Ethics,  vol.  i. 


Sin.  195 

""We  are  always  practicing  these  little  decep- 
tions upon  ourselves,  postponing  the  conse- 
quences of  our  misdeeds  as  if  they  were  to  cul- 
minate some  other  day  about  the  time  of  death. 
/It  makes  us  sin  with  a  lighter  hand  to  run  an 
account  with  retribution,  as  it  were,  and  delay 
the  reckoning  time  with  God."  But  "the 
powers  of  sin,  to  the  exact  strength  that  we 
have  developed  them,  nearing  their  dreadful 
culmination  with  every  breath  we  draw,  are 
here  within  us,  now.  The  souls  of  some  men 
are  already  honeycombed  through  and  through 
with  the  eternal  consequences  of  neglect,  so 
that  taking  the  natural  and  rational  view  of 
their  case  just  now,  it  is  simply  inconceivable 
that  there  is  any  escape  just  now.  What  a 
fearful  thing  it  is  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God!  A  fearful  thing  even  if,  as  the 
philosopher  tells  us,  'the  hands  of  the  Living 
God  are  the  Laws  of  Nature.'  "  12 

Every  sin,  moreover,  retards  the  advance  of 
the  race  by  so  much,  retards  the  sinner's  own 
growth  toward  perfection  and  happiness,  and 
in  some  form  or  other  brings  unhappiness  and 
suffering  upon  him,  and  upon  others.  Aye,  upon 
others!  This  is  the  worst  of  all.  Like  the 
sheen  from  the  armor  of  Spenser's  young  Knight 
of  the  Eed  Cross,  so  the  light  shed  by  Evo- 
lution on  the  foul  monster  of  sin  reveals  how 

18  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World. 


196  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

"  Of  her  there  bred 

A  thousand  young  ones,  which  she  daily  fed, 
Sucking  from  her  poisonous  dugs;  each  one 
Of  sundry  shapes,  yet  all  ill-favored." 

For,  every  sin  committed  brings  forth  a  whole 
brood  of  other  sins  in  the  generations  to  come. 
Every  sin  committed  deepens  the  sinfulness  of 
the  character,  and  increases  by  so  much  the  pre- 
disposition to  sin,  and  to  its  attendant  misery  and 
degradation,  that  will  be  inherited  by  the  sin- 
ner's children.  If  not  for  your  own  sake  then, 
O  drunkard,  O  libertine,  O  deceiver,  cries  Evolu- 
tion, at  least  for  the  sake  of  your  offspring  yet 
unborn,  repent,  turn  from  the  evil  of  your  ways, 
and  seek  purity  and  goodness,  seek  God ! 

Yet  in  many  other  ways  might  it  be  shown 
how  mightily  Evolution  strengthens  and  en- 
hances the  force  and  credibility  of  the  practical 
teachings  of  Christianity.  But  it  is  not  nec- 
essary to  do  this  here.  Enough  has  surely  been 
said  to  show  that  on  this  doctrine  as  clearly  as 
upon  the  others  we  have  examined,  Christianity 
and  Evolution  are  not  foes,  but  workers  to- 
gether toward  the  same  end,  capable  of  being, 
and,  I  cannot  but  believe,  meant  to  be,  insep- 
arable friends  and  close  allies,  one  supplement- 
ing the  other  in  its  teaching  and  sharpening  its 
weapons,  each  strengthening  the  other's  arm  in 
their  work,  both  together  battling,  side  by  side, 
for  the  same  Eight,  Truth,  and  Goodness,  under 
one  and  the  same  Captain  and  Lord  of  All. 


m 

SALVATION. 


"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  Except  a  man  be  born 
again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

(JOHN  3:  3.) 

"By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith;  and  that  not  of 
yourselves;  it  is  the  gift  of  God." 

(Era.  2:  8.) 

"That  as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might 
grace  reign,  through  righteousness,  unto  eternal  life,  by 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

(ROM.  5:  21). 

"TVenn  starke  Geisteskraft 
Die  Elemente 
An  sich  herangeraflt, 
Kein  Engel  trennte 
Geeinte  Zwienatur 
Der  innigen  Beiden. 
Die  ewige  Liebe  nur 
Vermag's  zu  scheiden." 

(GOETHE— Faust.) 

"The  meaning  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross  is  that  self- 
devoting  love,  the  surrender  of  the  will  to  truth  and  to  God, 
is  the  one  thing  acceptable  to  the  Father,  the  one  thing  by 
which  God  and  man  are  brought  into  harmony." 

(W.  H.  FKEMANTLE — The  Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life.) 

"We  must  be  born  again,  not  merely  because  we  are 
wicked,  not  because  of  a  lapse,  but  because  we  are  flesh, 
and  need  to  be  carried  forward  and  lifted  up  into  the 
realm  of  the  spirit,— a  constructive  rather  than  a  recon- 
structive process." 

(T.  T.  HUNGER—  The  Freedom  of  Faith.) 


VII. 
SALVATIOK 

IF  in  the  preceding  Study  I  have  succeeded 
in  making  clear  the  teaching  of  Evolution  on 
the  subject  of  human  sinfulness,  then  it  will 
have  appeared,  not  only  that  the  scriptural 
doctrine  is  corroborated  and  explained  thereby, 
but  also  that,  from  the  additional  light  thrown 
on  the  causes  and  nature  of  sin,  Evolution  gives 
additional  force  and  intensity  to  the  soul's  cry, 
"O  wretched  man  that  I  am!  who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  the  body  of  this  death?"  a  deeper 
sense  of  the  need  of  an  answer;  and  also  some 
indication  at  least  of  the  directon  in  which  the 
only  sufficient  answer  must  be  sought.  More 
than  this  we  have  no  right  to  expect  from  a 
system  of  philosophy  based  wholly  on  scien- 
tific facts  and  observed  phenomena.  If  there 
is  nothing  in  these  facts,  and  the  principles 
legitimately  based  upon  them,  to  contradict  or 
make  improbable  the  Christian  doctrine  of  sal- 
vation, we  ought  to  be  satisfied ;  and  more  than 
satisfied  if  they  prove  to  be  such  as  to  require 
for  their  natural  and  logical  complement,  such 
a  doctrine  as  the  Scriptures  give  us.  For  it 
has  been  asserted  over  and  over  again,  with 
the  utmost  confidence  and  positiveness,  that 


200  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

whatever  else  may  be  said  in  favor  of  Evolution 
from  the  Christian  standpoint,  the  subject  of 
salvation  is  one  upon  which  they  are  inevitably 
and  hopelessly  antagonistic.  There  is  no  room, 
it  is  said,  in  the  system  of  Evolution  for  any 
such  theory  of  redemption  and  atonement  as 
the  Bible  teaches.  It  is  contrary  to  the  whole 
idea  of  Evolution.  There  is  not  even  any  need 
of  it  if  the  principles  of  this  philosophy  be  cor- 
rect. Let  us  see. 

The  tendency  to  sin  which  observation  and 
experience,  as  well  as  the  Bible,  tell  us  is  in- 
herent in  man  and  universally  prevalent,  Evo- 
lution explains  to  be  according  to  a  well-known 
principle  called  the  law  of  Eeversion  to  Type. 
Acting  through  the  forces  of  heredity,  it  makes 
itself  mightily  felt  throughout  the  whole  realm 
of  organic  existence ;  and  has  been  a  prominent 
agent  in  modifying  the  development  of  living 
things.  Owing  its  existence  to  the  forces  that 
make  for  progress  and  improvement,  it  becomes 
itself  the  chief  opponent  of  such  progress,  the 
great  retarding  element  that  hinders  all  im- 
provement. In  its  practical  workings  it  is  a 
principle  with  which  all  are  acquainted.  Every 
gardener  knows  how,  no  sooner  than  he  has 
succeeded  in  bringing  forth  a  new  and  improved 
variety  of  the  rose,  for  example,  the  inclination 
at  once  manifests  itself  to  degenerate. 

Let  me  call  as  witness  to  this  fact  the  editor 
of  a  religious  journal  who  does  not  believe  in 


Salvation.  201 

Evolution,  and  whose  words  are  quoted  by  a 
brother  editor  with  much  satisfaction  as  de- 
scribing "facts  whose  truthfulness  is  much  more 
patent  than  is  that  of  any  of  the  evolutionary 
theories," — so  little  is  Evolution  understood  !— 
Says  this  writer:  "Even  when  the  plants  in  a 
neglected  garden  are  not  altogether  supplanted 
and  dispossessed,  an  ominous  process  of  degen- 
eration sets  in.  The  flowers,  once  tended 
with  so  much  care,  and  grown  to  such  perfec- 
tion, revert  to  an  earlier  and  inferior  type ;  they 
lose  form,  color,  perfume;  the  large  'voluptu- 
ous garden- roses, '  with  their  infinite  variety 
and  infinite  wealth  of  hue,  sink  back  into  the 
primitive  dog-rose  of  our  hedges,  and  the  whole 
race  of  choice  cultivated  geraniums  into  the 
crane's-bill  of  the  copse  and  the  wayside.  And 
this  law  of  degeneration  from  neglect  runs  and 
holds  in  every  province  of  life."  Every  bird- 
fancier  has  observed  the  same.  Suppose  he  has 
a  number  of  pigeons  of  all  varieties  of  form 
and  color.  He  leaves  them  to  themselves.  Not 
many  generations  need  pass  before  each  one  of 
the  varieties  will  have  degenerated.  Their  dif- 
ferent fancy  colors  will  have  given  place  to  a 
sameness  of  a  sober  hue.  Their  distinctive 
forms  will  have  vanished  in  great  degree,  and 
all  resemble  one  another.  In  a  word,  give  them 
time  enough  and  simply  leave  them  alone,  and 
all  the  different  varieties  will  revert  •  to  the 
original  type  of  the  common  rock- pigeon.  And 


202  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

this  same  tendency  runs  through  all  the  organic 
world.  Even  in  the  highest  and  most  complex 
forms  of  being,  in  man  himself,  it  is  often 
strikingly  displayed.  Shipwrecked  sailors  have 
been  found  on  desert  islands  who  in  a  few  de- 
cades, removed  from  the  restraining  and  ele- 
vating influences  of  society,  had  sunken  into 
an  almost  savage  state.  And  even  in  the  most 
enlightened  state,  surrounded  by  all  that  refines 
and  uplifts  man,  who  has  not  often  been  con- 
scious of  the  mighty  downward-drawing  ten- 
dency in  his  own  breast;  the  chafing  against 
the  usages,  requirements,  restraints  of  society, 
of  religion,  of  civilization  itself;  the  impulse 
for  once  to  throw  them  all  off,  to  flee  into  the 
woods,  to  the  mountains,  to  enjoy  at  least  a 
few  days  or  weeks  of  freedom,  of  wildness, 
aye,  of  savagery ! 

So  universal  and  strong  is  this  principle  of 
reversion  everywhere  that  we  may  well  ask 
how,  in  spite  of  it,  the  world  can  ever  have  been 
brought  to  its  present  estate.  The  answer  is, 
only  by  the  continuous  counteraction  of  still 
stronger  forces.  The  fact  is,  all  progress  is 
simply  the  result  of  the  battle  between  the 
hereditary  forces  obeying  the  law  of  reversion, 
and  the  restraining,  suppressing,  out-drawing  and 
up- forcing  power  of  an  environment  so  wisely 
and  beneficently  ordered  and  controlled  by  the 
absolute  -Being,  by  divine  Providence,  as  to  im- 
prove the  world,  as  it  were  in  spite  of  itself. 


Salvation.  203 

Confining  ourselves  to  man,  Evolution 
clearly  shows,  just  what  the  Bible  has  ever 
taught,  that  man,  alone  and  left  to  himself,  is 
lost,  and  that  not  only  spiritually  but  physically 
as  well.  Within  himself  there  was  nothing 
that  would  have  improved  him;  but  everything 
that  would  have  degraded  him  to  the  lowest 
possible  type  of  being.  The  source  of  salvation 
must  come  from  without.  And  it  did.  Not 
only  from  Scripture  but  from  Evolution  too, 
we  know  that  the  Saviour- Power  was  "in  the 
beginning"  active,  potent  in  his  saving  work. 
First,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  necessities  of 
primitive,  half-human  man's  surroundings, 
through  the  struggle  for  existence,  by  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  developing  in  him  one  by  one 
his  superior  faculties  of  body  and  mind,  and  pre- 
serving and  improving  them  by  continual  exer- 
cise, by  inheritance,  and  all  other  beneficent 
means,  he  was  lifted  up  above  the  other  ani- 
mals, and  prepared  for  still  higher  development. 
Then  by  the  necessities  of  his  environment 
again  he  was  forced  into  social  relations  with 
his  fellowmen.  These  relations  obliged  him 
to  conform  to  quite  a  new  and  different  course 
of  conduct  and  mode  of  life  than  that  of  the 
lower  animals.  Reacting  upon  his  spiritual 
powers  this  formed  new  modes  and  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling,  strengthened,  corrected, 
purified  his  mind;  and  finally,  gave  him  the 
moral  faculty,  his  conscience. 


204  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

All  the  while  that  thus  man  was  forced  from 
without  to  advance  and  improve,  from  without 
also,  by  the  requirements  of  his  surroundings,  he 
was  preserved  from  reverting  to  his  original 
condition.  And  then,  by  the  reflex  influence  of 
all  this,  his  inner  condition  was  changed,  and 
more  and  more  conformed  to  the  outer,  so  that 
in  turn  it  acted  upon  the  latter  in  the  course  of 
time.  Then  by  the  continuous  beneficent 
agency  of  the  Saviour,  man  was  gradually  led 
out  and  up  from  his  low,  purely  animal  life ;  and 
finally  brought  to  be  a  moral  and  religious  agent. 
That  in  those  rude  days  of  barbarous  ignorance, 
though  "he  was  in  the  world,  the  world  knew 
him  not,"  does  not  surprise  us.  "Such  igno- 
rance God  winked  at."  But  that  now,  after 
the  lapse  of  ages,  when  man  boasts  of  his  great 
enlightenment  and  moral  discernment,  there 
should  be  so  many  who  can  look  back  over 
those  ages  and  yet  refuse  to  see  the  saving 
providence  of  God  in  it  all,  is  indeed  past  com- 
prehension. 

The  very  same  means,  to  bring  about  the 
same  end  toward  which  all  things  tended  from 
the  farthest  ages  of  the  dark  past,  are  shown 
us  to  have  been  employed  when  we  come  to 
historic  times.  All  through  the  Old  Testament 
records  we  behold  the  same  struggle  between 
sin  and  God,  between  the  natural  law  of  re- 
version and  the  law  of  progress;  the  former 
steadily  overcome  by  the  enforcement  of  the 


Salvation.  205 

latter  through  the  exigencies  of  the  environ- 
ment. 

What  is  the  history  of  Israel  but  the  history 
of  human  salvation,  a  continuation  of  the  un- 
written records  of  prehistoric  centuries?  In 
more  detail  than  the  latter  it  shows  us  how 
marvellously  God  was  developing  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man,  and  fitting  it  for  the  consum- 
mation of  his  saving  work.  And  always  by  the 
same  general  method.  Ever  we  are  shown  how 
mighty  was  the  tendency  to  revert  still  work- 
ing in  the  Hebrew  nature ;  now  causing  Israel 
to  murmur  and  wish  themselves  back  in  Egypt 
from  the  threatening  waters  of  the  Red  Sea ; 
now  breaking  out  in  open  rebellion  against  the 
righteous  laws  that  governed  them ;  then  making 
themselves  their  idol  calf  of  gold  before  which 
to  bow  rather  than  before  the  unseen  Jehovah ; 
lusting  for  the  flesh-pots  of  their  old  life ;  and 
finally,  even  in  the  Holy  Land  degenerating  by 
thousands  and  for  decades  of  years  into  Baal 
and  Astarte  worship  in  groves  and  on  the  hill- 
tops. And  as  persistently  did  God  drive  them 
up  and  spur  them  on,  by  thunderings  and  hun- 
ger and  wars  and  pestilence,  by  promises,  warn- 
ings, gifts  and  allurements,  appealing  to  sense 
and  to  soul,  to  yield  themselves  to  the  higher 
law  of  righteousness.  Until  at  length,  through 
centuries  and  centuries  of  rigorous  training  un- 
der the  rod  of  the  schoolmaster  of  outward  Law, 
they  were  made  ready,  by  its  reflex  influence 


206  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

on  the  inner  man,  for  the  reception  of  that 
highest  type  of  manhood  which  was  to  be  the 
consummation  and  completion  of  all  previous 
training,  experience,  and  history. 

The  process  by  which  this  was  done  was  the 
same  as  that  followed  in  the  evolution  of  every- 
thing else.  Change  in  the  environment  neces- 
sitates a  change  in  the  organism.  For  the 
essential  condition  of  all  life  is  a  certain  degree 
of  correspondence  between  internal  and  ex- 
ternal relations,  even  if  "the  continuous  adjust- 
ment of  internal  relations  to  external  relations" 
is  not  Jife  itself,  as  Mr.  Spencer  maintains.  Now 
by  being  obliged  by  Providence,  manifesting 
itself  in  the  environment,  to  conform  to  the 
law  of  righteousness,  through  centuries  of  time, 
the  mental  and  spiritual  constitution  of  man 
was  gradually  more  and  more  modified,  and 
brought  into  correspondence  with  this  law,  by 
such  forces  as  habit,  association,  heredity  and 
others.  At  first  primitive  man  discerned  only 
a  very  few  relations  as  moral,  saw  the  right 
and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  only  in  a  few  of 
their  most  evident  forms.  But  by  being  made 
to  conform  to  these,  his  moral  faculties  were 
strengthened.  By  use  the  inner  function  was 
enlarged.  This  enabled  him  then,  nay,  obliged 
him,  to  recognize  other  and  less  simple  ethical 
relations,  and  to  live  up  to  them.  By  modify- 
ing his  conduct  thus,  his  conduct  in  turn  again 
exerted  its  reflex  influence  on  the  function, 


Salvation.  20? 

the  conscience,  making  it  still  more  keen- 
sighted,  sensitive,  and  correct.  And  so  on, 
the  outer  acting  on  the  inner,  and  the  inner  on 
the  outer,  and  at  each  step  the  one  improving 
the  other,  the  development  went  on.  It  was  a 
slow  but  positive  growth  of  the  soul,  a  con- 
tinual defeat  and  weakening  of  the  tendency  to 
reversion,  a  putting  off  the  old  man,  and  train- 
ing for  the  final  putting  on  of  the  new  man. 
It  was  a  steady  enlargement  and  strengthening 
of  the  soul's  capacity  for  God. 

In  all  this  does  Evolution  not  simply  corrob- 
orate Scripture,  sometimes,  it  may  be,  in  dif- 
ferent language  and  terms,  but  yet  always  ex- 
pressing precisely  the  same  facts?  If  one  is 
accused  of  having  no  room  nor  any  need  for 
the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  then  how  can 
the  other  escape  the  same  charge?  If  one  by 
a  natural,  inherent,  and  logical  necessity  almost 
requires  us  to  look  for  a  completion  of  the  pro- 
cess and  the  coming  of  a  perfect  Man  upon 
earth,  then  why  not  the  other  as  well  ?  No  less 
clearly  and  positively  than  the  Hebrew  prophets 
does  Evolution  predict  the  time  when 

"  No  more  shall  nation  against  nation  rise, 
Nor  ardent  warriors  meet  with  hateful  eyes, 
Nor  fields  with  gleaming  steel  be  covered  o'er, 
The  brazen  trumpet  kindle  rage  no  more, 
But  useless  lances  into  scythes  shall  bend, 
And  the  broad  falchion  in  a  plow  share  end;" 

— when  virtue,  peace  and  righteousness  shall 


208  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea ;  when 
all  men,  as  absolutely  moral,  will  conform  to 
the  divine  laws,  as  Mr.  Spencer  says,  "not  by 
external  coercion  nor  self-coercion,  but  by  acting 
them  out  spontaneously. ' '  He  who  has  begun 
the  good  work  will  also  finish  it. 

But  how? 

Evolution  shows  us  how  through  the  mutual 
interaction  of  outer  and  inner  relations,  of 
organism  and  environment,  existence  is  brought 
from  one  stage  up  to  the  next.  So  plant-life  is 
developed  up  to  a  certain  point.  Then  animal- 
life  is  refined  and  ennobled  up  to  a  point  where 
human  begins.  Finally  human  life  is  lifted  up 
and  up  to  the  stage  we  have  reached  in  our  in- 
vestigation. 

Now  how  was  plant-life  graduated  into  ani- 
mal? The  final  step  we  do  not  as  yet  know. 
But  as  every  prior  step  was  brought  to  pass  by 
some  new  contingency  in  the  environment  nec- 
essitating some  change  of  function,  and  this 
finally  resulting  in  the  new  power,  or  form  of 
life,  needed  for  the  proper  correspondence  be- 
tween the  plant  and  its  surroundings,  we  are 
warranted  in  concluding  that  the  change  from 
mere  plant  to  animal  must  have  been  likewise 
caused,  after  vegetal  life  had  been  far  enough 
advanced  to  be  capable  of  it,  by  the  calling  into 
being  of  the  new  and  higher  animal  powers  by 
something  new  in  the  environment,  that  is,  not 
in  the  plant,  occasioning,  necessitating,  the  more. 


Salvation.  209 

complex  inner  relations  and  forms  of  life  corres 
ponding  to  it.  These  again,  by  ever  new  changes 
in  the  surroundings  were  developed  step  by  step 
into  still  higher.  When  animal -life  was  ready 
at  last  for  human  faculties,  they  in  like  manner 
came  into  being,  were  bestowed,  in  accord  with 
the  demands  of  something  in  the  environment. 
If  man,  therefore,  is  to  enter  upon  a  yet  higher 
and  different  stage  of  being,  must  we  not  look 
for  it  again  to  come  through  an  influence  from 
outside  of  him?  If  the  different  changes  in  en- 
vironment had  not  taken  place,  plants  would 
always  have  remained  plants,  animal-life  would 
never  have  attained  to  human.  This  much  is 
certain.  And  more.  If  it  had  not  been  for  his 
environment,  spiritual  and  physical,  man  would 
inevitably  have  degenerated  into  a  beast.  If 
now  there  com.e  not  something  from  without  to 
cause  new  and  higher  powers  in  man  to  come 
into  being,  he  will,  he  can,  never  of  himself 
rise  above  the  estate  in  which  he  finds  himself; 
but  he  will  and  must  sink  down  again  through 
the  gravitation  of  reversion  to  a  lower. 

Is  there  anything  in  this  that  opposes  the 
Bible  and  Christian  theology?  Is  there  any- 
thing that  they  do  not  emphatically  indorse? 
Evolution  does  have  room  for,  and  does  recog- 
nize the  need  of  a  Saviour  ab  extra.  It  cannot 
pretend  to  explain  the  development  of  mankind 
without  recognizing  the  Christ  as  an  essential 
factor  in  it.  And,  as  we  have  seen,  it  recog- 


210  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

nizes  him  from  the  very  beginning  as  the  saving 
Agent  in  the  world,  and  his  historical  appear- 
ance in  the  flesh  as  but  the  consummation  of 
his  eternal  work  of  divine  beneficence.  So  far 
then  Evolution  and  the  Scriptures  both  teach 
substantially  the  same  truth.  Let  us  question 
them  further. 

Nineteen  hundred  years  ago  the  most  ad- 
vanced man  had  reached  a  point  in  his  spiritual 
development  where  he  could  get  no  higher. 
That  is  to  say,  ethically  he  had  learned  the 
lesson  of  right  and  truth,  he  knew  good  from 
evil,  and  also  felt  that  he  ought  to  do  the  for- 
mer and  avoid  the  latter;  and  religiously  he 
acknowledged  a  God  who  was  the  Maker  and 
Kuler  of  all.  With  ^Eschylus  he  knew  that 

"  Jove  tempers  all,  steadies  all  things  that  reel; 

When  wildly  swerveth 

From  the  safe  line  life's  burning  chariot  wheel 
His  hand  preserveth;" 

a  God  who  demanded  righteousness  and  con- 
demned sin.  Men  had  been  taught  that 
"obedience  is  better  than  sacrifice,"  and  to 
ask  "What  profiteth  the  graven  image,  that 
the  maker  thereof  hath  graven  it ;  the  molten 
image,  and  a  teacher  of  lies,  that  the  maker  of 
his  work  trusteth  therein,  to  make  dumb  idols?" 
Man  knew 

"  That  impious  deeds  conspire 
To  beget  an  offspring  of  impious  deeds 
Too  like  their  ugly  sire. 


Salvation.  211 

But  whoso  is  just,  though  his  wealth  like  a  river 
Flow  down,  shall  be  scathless;  his  house  shall  rejoice 
In  an  offering  of  beauty  forever." 

With  the  Hebrew  he  believes  that ' '  the  sinner 
shall  surely  die;"  and  with  Pindar 

''No  less  he  knows 

The  day  fast  comes  when  all  men  must  depart, 
And  pay  for  present  pride  in  future  woes." 

He  even  felt  that  he  ought  to  love  God,  and 
that  only  so  could  he  render  him  acceptable 
service. 

So  far  had  man  come  in  the  century  before 
the  present  era.  But  he  could  come  no  farther. 
There  was  nothing  in  his  environment  to  lead 
him  beyond  this.  And  therefore,  too,  we  find 
that  he  was  already  yielding  to  the  law  of  rever- 
sion. Man  had  begun  to  degenerate;  or  at 
least  there  were  signs  enough  to  show  that  he 
was  on  the  point  of  starting  on  his  downward 
and  backward  course.  To  this  the  later 
prophets  bear  abundant  witness.  The  burden 
of  their  speech  was  that  "  Israel  hath  forgotten 
his  Maker;"  "now  they  sin  more  and  more, 
and  have  made  them  molten  images  of  their 
silver,  and  idols  according  to  their  own  under- 
standing. .  .  .  O  Israel,  thou  hast  destroy- 
ed thyself."  And  in  other  civilized  nations 
which  had  attained  to  the  apex  of  their  possible 
growth  under  their  circumstances,  history  tells 
us  the  same  story.  Keversion,  degeneracy, 
had  set  in.  And  they  knew  it.  Unless  there 


212  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

should  speedily  arise  some  saving  circumstance, 
some  new  agency  in  their  environment,  to  ar- 
rest their  downward  tendency,  in  other  words, 
to  save  them  from  their  sins,  they  were  inev- 
itably lost.  They  knew  it;  and  eagerly  they 
scanned  the  dark  horizon  if  haply  through  its 
black  and  threatening  clouds  they  might  discern 
some  rays  of  the  star  of  hope.  In  Greece,  says 
the  late  Dr.  Cocker  in  his  able  work  on  ' '  Chris- 
tianity and  Greek  Philosophy,"  '  A  dim 
consciousness  of  sin  and  retribution  as  a  fact, 
and  of  reconciliation  as  a  want,  seems  to  have 
revealed  itself  even  in  the  darkest  periods  of 
history.  This  consciousness  underlies  not  a 
few  of  the  Greek  tragedies.  'The  Prometheus 
Bound  was  followed  by  the  Prometheus  Un- 
bound, reconciled  and  restored  through  the  in- 
tervention of  Jove's  son.  The  (Edipus  Tyran- 
nus  of  Sophocles  was  completed  by  the  (Edipus 
Colonus,  where  he  dies  in  peace  amid  tokens  of 
divine  favor.  And  so  the  Agamemnon  and 
Choephoroe  reach  their  consummation  only  in 
the  Eumenides,  where  the  Erinyes  themselves 
are  appeased  and  the  Euries  become  the  gracious 
ones.'  "  Among  the  philosophers  "Plato  was, 
in  some  way,  able  to  discover  the  need  of  a 
Saviour,  to  desire  a  Saviour,  but  he  could  not 
predict  his  appearing.  Hints  are  obscurely 
given  of  a  Conqueror  of  sin,  an  Assuager  of 
pain,  an  Averter  of  evil  in  this  life,  and  of  the 
impending  retributions  of  the  future  life;  but 


Salvation.  213 

they  are  exceedingly  indefinite  and  shadowy. 
In  all  instances  they  are  rather  the  language  of 
desire,  than  of  hope. ' '  And  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  old  Norse  prophecies  in  the  Elder 
Edda,  of  the  final  regeneration,  when 

"comes  the  mighty  One 
To  the  great  judgment; 
From  heaven  he  comes, 
He  who  guides  all  things: 
Judgments  he  utters; 
Strifes  he  appeases, 
Laws  he  ordains 
To  flourish  forever." 

Far  more  definitely  did  a  Zechanah  with 
eager  longing  tell  of  "the  Branch"  who  "shall 
build  the  temple  of  the  Lord,"  and  call  upon 
Jerusalem  to  rejoice,  for  "Behold,  thy  King 
cometh  unto  thee;  he  is  just,  and  having  sal- 
vation;" and  a  Malachi  promise  that  soon 
"shall  the  Sun  of  righteousness  arise  with  heal- 
ing in  his  wings."  The  spirit  of  man  was 
mellow  and  receptive.  It  needed  but  to  come 
in  contact  with  the  right  agency  and  it  would 
spring  into  new  relations  and  exhibit  new  pow- 
ers. The  fullness  of  time  was  come.  All  things 
were  ready  and  waiting. 

The  further  truth,  therefore,  upon  which 
Christian  doctrine  and  Evolution  unite  is  that 
the  world  was  lost  in  trespasses  and  sin ;  that 
it  could  not  save  itself;  it  needed  a  Saviour 
from  outside  of  itself;  and  one  who  should  cause 


214  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

it  to  undergo  some  radical  change  in  its  nature : 
it  ''must  be  born  again." 

"  At  this  stage  then,  says  history,  ' '  when  the 
fullness  of  time  was  come,  God  sent  forth  his 
Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to 
redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we 
might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons. "  "In  him 
was  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." 
He  "dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory, 
the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth."  That  is,  there  ap- 
peared in  our  environment  a  Being  essentially 
different  from  any  that  had  ever  been  known ; 
for  though  he  4 '  took  on  himself  the  form  of  a 
servant,"  and  "was  tempted  in  all  points  like 
as  we  are, ' '  he  yet  was  ' '  without  sin. ' '  He  was 
a  Perfect  Man,  having  all  the  positive  qualities  of 
manhood,  the  alone  essential  ones,  with  the 
essential  quality  of  Godhood  added,  holiness, 
love.  This  made  him  the  Son  of  God,  united 
him  with  the  divine  by  the  closest  bonds  of  real 
kinship ;  for  a  son  is  a  son  only  as  he  partakes 
of  the  father's  essential  nature.  Here,  then, 
was  a  Seed  of  a  woman  who  daily  bruised  the 
serpent's  head;  who  was  superior  to  sin  and  its 
downward  tendency;  who  lived  a  higher  life, 
the  eternal,  divine  life.  These  are  simply  his- 
torical facts ;  and  so  are  the  further  ones,  that 
this  Holy  One  and  Just,  after  living  such  a 
perfect  life,  allowed  himself  in  the  very  prime 
of  his  early  manhood,  to  be  arrested,  mock- 


Salvation.  215 

ingly  tried,  and  unjustly,  basely  executed  upon 
the  cross  on  Calvary. 

So  far  there  seems  to  be  no  difficulty  in  trac- 
ing the  unity  of  the  truth  as  taught  in  Chris- 
tianity and  by  Evolution.  Nor  need  there  be 
any  when  we  come  further  to  explain  how 
Jesus  Christ,  this  new  Phenomenon  in  human 
environment,  by  his  life  and  death  became  the 
Saviour  of  men,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  many 
evolutionists  and  many  theologians  strenuously 
deny  even  its  possibility.  The  former  do  so 
on  the  assumption  that  their  misrepresentation 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  the  true 
scriptural  teaching ;  and  the  latter  by  accepting 
this  misrepresentation  as  true  and  correct,  and 
then  trying  to  defend  a  theory  of  salvation 
which  may  have  been  held  by  some  theologians, 
and  is  still  too  often  preached  even  in  its  crudest 
form,  but  which  certainly  is  not  scriptural,  ra- 
tional, nor  moral,  and  is  being  rapidly  aban- 
doned by  the  most  intelligent  and  spiritually- 
minded  thinkers  everywhere. 

The  precious  truth  there  is  in  the  old  Anselmic 
view  of  the  atonement,  and  in  Luther's  and  Ed- 
wards's,  is  freely  granted.  But  it  is  no  longer 
maintained  that  these  contained  all  the  truth. 
There  was  also  a  measure  of  truth  in  Schleier- 
macher's  view,  in  Robertson's,  and  even  in  Bush- 
nell's.  None  of  these  alone  had  the  whole  truth. 
Each  had  a  part.  All  together  have  more  than 
any  one  alone.  The  entire  trend  of  thought  to- 


216  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

day  is  to  get  away  from  the  insufficiency  of  each, 
and  to  unite  on  the  combined  partial  truths  of 
all  as  one  sufficient  whole.  "There  are  two 
tendencies,"  says  Dr.  Fisher,  than  whom  there 
is  none  more  competent  to  know,  "which  the 
profoundest  modern  theology  in  connection 
with  this  subject  plainly  discloses.  The  one  is 
an  unwillingness  to  rest  in  the  idea  of  bare 
suffering,  apart  from  its  particular  motives  and 
concomitants,  as  if  that  alone  had  an  atoning 
virtue.  It  is  felt  that  suffering  needlessly  in- 
curred, or  arbitrarily  imposed,  or  not  growing 
naturally  out  of  the  providential  situation  in 
which  the  Sufferer  is  placed,  would  not  answer 
the  end.  .  .  .  Associated  with  the  tendency 
just  mentioned  is  the  disposition  to  make  no 
point  of  the  quantum  of  suffering,  as  if  a 
mathematical  equivalent  were  to  be  sought  for 
the  penalty  due  to  sin.  The  juridical  concep- 
tion of  this  subject,  certainly  in  this  mechanical 
form,  is  obsolescent."  ' 

So  long  as  this  obsolescent  concepton  is  still 
presented  as  the  only  true  conception ;  so  long 
as  God  is  still  spoken  of  substantially  as  Calvin 
represented  him,  holding  that  "in  a  wonderful 
and  divine  manner,  He  both  hated  us  and  loved 
us  at  the  same  time,"  and  man  is  still  declared, 
even  in  the  very  words  of  Edwards,  to  be  sus- 
taining the  relation  of  client  to  Christ  his  Pa- 

1  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian.  Belief. 


Salvation.  217 

tron  over  against  God  whom  he  has  offended, 
and  to  whom  he  is  reconciled,  strictly  in  the 
manner  of  an  ordinary  law-suit,  through  the 
mediation  of  the  Patron  by  virtue  of  God's  be- 
ing the  Friend  of  the  latter; — so  long  as  the 
grain  of  truth  in  these  conceptions  is  thus  dis- 
guised under  a  mass  of  crudities  of  statement 
and  distorted  imagery,  it  is  no  great  wonder 
that  it  gives  offence  not  only  to  evolutionists, 
but  to  not  a  few  other  thinking  people  as  well. 
At  the  same  time  I  can  well  understand  why 
such  and  other  kindred  views  of  Christ's  salva- 
tion should  so  long  have  maintained  their  hold 
on  the  human  mind.  They  satisfy  a  certain 
natural  feeling  of  revenge  that  too  often  is 
mistaken  for ' '  righteous  anger' '  and  a  just  desire 
for  punishment.  Even  so  careful  and  profound 
a  theologian  as  Canon  Mozley,  I  cannot  but 
think,  has  fallen  into  this  error  when  he  says 
that  "it  is  undoubtedly  the  case,  however  we 
may  account  for  it,  that  the  real  suffering  of 
another  for  him,  of  a  good  person  for  a  guilty 
one,  will  mollify  the  appetite  for  punishment, 
which  was  possibly  up  to  that  time  in  full 
possession  of  our  minds ;  and  this  kind  of  sat- 
isfaction to  justice,  and  appeasing  of  it,  is  in- 
volved in  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
m  ent. ' '  Surely  the  ' '  appetite  for  punishment' ' 
that  is  appeased  by  "this  kind  of  satisfaction," 
is  not  a  sense  of  justice,  but  solely  and  alone 
an  instinctive  desire  for  revenge. 


218  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Then,  too,  it  is  agreeable  to  other  tendencies 
of  our  carnal  nature  simply  to  accept  personal 
safety  as  a  ready-made  gift,  no  matter  how  it 
was  procured  for  us.  This  Robertson  forcibly 
points  out  in  his  fine  sermon  on  "Caiaphas' 
View  of  Vicarious  Atonement."  " There  is  a 
kind  of  acquiescence  in  the  Atonement  which 
is  purely  selfish.  The  more  bloody  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  character  of  God,  the  greater, 
of  course,  the  satisfaction  in  feeling  sheltered 
from  it.  The  more  Wrath  instead  of  Love  is 
believed  to  be  the  Divine  name,  the  more 
may  a  man  find  joy  in  believing  that  he  is 
safe.  It  is  the  Siberian  feeling:  the  inno- 
cent has  glutted  the  wolves,  and  we  may  pur- 
sue our  journey  in  safety.  Christ  has  suffered, 
and  I  am  safe.  He  bore  the  agony — I  take  the 
reward.  I  may  live  now  with  impunity,  and, 
of  course,  it  is  very  easy  to  call  acquiescence  in 
that  arrangement  humility,  and  to  take  credit 
for  the  abnegation  of  self -righteousness." 

But  it  is  not  to  our  purpose  to  dwell  upon 
such  erroneous  theories.  Nons  of  them,  surely, 
are  necessarily  implied  in  the  Scriptural  account 
of  the  saving  work  of  the  God-Man.  As  surely 
much  of  them  is  contrary  to  the  conceptions 
of  the  divine  nature,  the  nature  of  man  and  of 
sin,  and  the  spirit  of  Christ's  life  and  teachings, 
as  given  in  the  Bible  and  in  human  conscious- 
ness. As  such,  therefore,  they  cannot  contain 
the  essential  truth  on  which  alone  Evolution 


Salvation.  219 

could  unite  with  them.  Phases  of  it,  indeed, 
they  may  express.  Propitiation,  Satisfaction, 
Expiation,  [Reconciliation,  Sacrifice,  Substitu- 
tion, all  such  words  are  expressive  of  ideas  that 
enter  into  the  explanation  of  the  method  of 
salvation.  But  all  of  them,  too,  are  liable  to 
misuse,  and  capable  of  conveying  wholly  wrong 
ideas.  The  truth  in  them  cannot  be  literally 
translated.  It  must  be  spiritually  apprehended. 

How,  then,  according  to  the  Scriptures  and 
according  to  Evolution  did  the  appearance  of 
Jesus  Christ,  his  work  upon  earth,  and  death 
on  the  cross,  effect  the  regeneration  of  man? 

That  it  did  so,  is  still  doing  so,  we  know. 
But  we  want  the  fact  explained.  It  was  not 
by  reversing  the  great  law  of  degeneracy, 
through  divine  interference ;  nor  by  abrogating 
or  changing  any  other  physical  or  moral  law 
of  the  universe.  Such  a  thing  is  simply  un- 
thinkable. And  we  have  his  own  assurance 
that  he  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill,  to 
complete.  Neither  was  it  only  or  mainly  to 
tell  men  what  they  must  do,  how  they  must 
live,  in  order  to  be  saved.  This  they  knew 
before.  That  without  holiness  no  man  can 
come  to  God  was  a  truth  that  not  only  their 
prophets,  but  their  own  bitter  experience, 
had  been  ever  more  and  more  painfully  im- 
pressing upon  them.  The  one  thing  man  now 
needed  was  a  new  motive-power  within  his 
breast,  stronger  than  any  other  he  had,  dif- 


220  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ferent  from  any  other,  a  God-ward  working 
power  that  would  counteract  and  overcome  the 
death  ward  forces  striving  within  him.  Tol 
kindle  this  in  the  human  heart,  and  so  destroy 
sin,  Christ  came ;  to  implant  the  principle  of  a 
higher  order  of  existence;  to  "bring  life  and 
immortality  to  light." 

Does  any  one  ask  what  that  new  power  was? 
Inquire  of  your  own  hearts.  What  was  the 
saving  principle  that  rescued  you  from  sin  and 
from  death,  that  impelled  you  to  shrink  from 
evil  with  an  agony  of  horror,  and  to  live  a  new 
life  full  of  zeal  for  the  good  and  the  true,  a  life 
in  God?  What  is  it  that  keeps  you  hourly 
from  yielding  to  temptation,  comforts  and 
strengthens  you  in  seasons  of  sorrow  and  pain, 
preserves  a  mighty  peace  deep  down  in  your 
innermost  soul,  even  while  the  storms  of  trouble 
and  anguish  are  raging  on  the  surface  without? 
Love.  Aye,  there  is  only  one  power  in  heaven 
or  on  earth  that  can  counteract  the  terrible  in- 
fluence of  hereditary  tendencies  to  sin  and  evil ; 
only  one  power  that  abideth  and  continues  per- 
severingly  in  well-doing;  only  one  power  that 
can  change  the  character  and  life  from  self-seek- 
ing and  self-indulgence  to  self -forgetful,  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  the  Divine.  And  that 

O 

power  is  Love,  the  power  that  made  the  world, 
that  sustains  it  ever,  and  that  will  lift  it  into 
heaven  in  the  end.  That  power  is  the  Spirit  of 
God  himself ;  for  ' '  God  is  love. " 


Salvation.  221 

Love  to  God!  Such  a  thing  was  unknown 
among  men  before  Christ  came.  He  first 
brought  it  down  from  heaven  to  earth.  Hither- 
to men  had  known  God  only  to  dread  him,  or 
to  admire,  often  to  hate  and  scorn  him  in  their 
secret  hearts.  He  had  been  to  them  nothing 
but  some  far-off  majesty,  whose  hard  decrees 
had  to  be  obeyed ;  who  gave  blessings  to  the 
obedient,  and  was  terrible  in  his  punishment  of 
the  disobedient.  Even  the  Hebrew,  who  had 
the  loftiest  conceptions  of  God  to  be  found  in 
any  people  of  his  time,  even  he  regarded  him 
only  as  an  almighty  Creator,  all-wise  Ruler; 
as  an  unseen  individual  Monarch,  worthy  to  be 
adored,  and  to  whom  gratitude  and  praise  be- 
longed for  all  his  mercies.  But  he  could  not 
love  him  in  any  true  sense.  He  was  too  awful 
in  the  splendor  and  glory  of  his  holiness ;  and 
he  was  too  far-off;  though  none  could  ever  es- 
cape from  his  presence,  yet  was  there  ever  an 
infinite,  abysmal  gap  between  him  and  his 
most  saintly  worshipper.  Within  the  inner  veil 
of  the  Holy  of  Holies  no  one  might  ever  go 
save  the  high-priest  only,  and  he  but  once  a 
year.  To  see  God  was  to  die.  To  touch  even 
the  outside  of  the  holy  Ark  whereon  was  his 
Mercy -Seat  was  to  share  the  instant  fate  of  the 
blasphemer.  How  could  sinful  man  dare  to 
love  such  a  Being,  even  had  he  felt  the  impulse 
to  do  so?  He  knew  that  he  ought  to;  but  he 
neither  felt  the  glow  of  love  in  his  heart,  nor 


222  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

knew  how  to  apply  and  direct  it  if  it  had  been 
there. 

What  was  needed,  therefore,  first  and  fore- 
most, was  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine  such 
as  should  cause  an  adaptation  and  adjustment 
of  the  inner  relations  in  man  to  God  different 
from  those  hitherto  existing.  Such  a  mani- 
festation Christ  is.  In  him  is  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh.  The  Expression  of  the  divine  Es- 
sence, the  Word,  that  had  been  in  the  begin- 
ning with  God,  that  was  God,  that  had  been 
in  the  world  and  by  whom  the  world  was  made, 
yet  never  had  been  recognized  by  men  while  in 
his  abstract  form,  now  was  concentrated  into 
a  concrete,  visible  shape ;  the  Word  was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  so  that  we  beheld 
his  excellence  and  recognized  it  as  the  excel- 
lence, the  very  essence,  of  the  Divinity.  Men 
saw  it  to  be  not  only,  or  even  chiefly,  physical 
power,  but  pre-eminently  grace  and  truth, 
purity,  tenderness,  sympathy,  sweetness,  love. 
In  these  the  almighty  Power  consisted.  Not 
to  command  and  compel;  but  to  draw  all  men 
unto  him.  Not  to  destroy  by  physical  strength ; 
but  to  overcome  evil  with  good. 

It  was  a  new  revelation  of  God,  such  as  had 
never  been  dreamed  of  by  man.  He  had  indeed 
been  taught  in  abstract  words  of  the  righteous- 
ness, the  holiness,  and  even  the  fatherly  love  of 
the  Deity.  But  his  narrow,  carnal  mind  had  not 
been  able  to  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  the 


fl» 

Salvation.  223 

broad,  spiritual  fact.  He  had  never  understood 
what  are  the  contents  of  the  divine  entirety. 
He  needed  to  learn  from  parts  to  whole,  the 
pure  white  blaze  of  the  eternal  Light  only 
dazzled  and  blinded  him.  He  needed  to  have 
its  rays  separated  into  their  component  colors. 
And  this  Christ  did  by  the  prism  of  his  human 
personality.  Now  he  shone  upon  the  troubled 
and  perplexed  family  at  Cana  with  the  beams 
of  a  delicate,  sympathetic  considerateness,  by 
supplying  the  wine  that  was  needed  for  the  due 
observance  of  their  glad  marriage  festival.  God 
had  often  before  given  them  wine.  Every 
season  they  gathered  the  rich  clusters  full  of 
purple  juice.  But  never  before  had  it  struck 
them  as  now  that  it  was  the  gift  of  a  gentle 
care  and  interest  in  their  happiness.  And  surely 
never  after  would  they  enjoy  the  juice  of  the 
grape  without  a  glow  of  gratitude  in  their  hearts 
for  the  divine  love  that  employed  omnipotence 
itself  in  ministering  to  their  comfort  and  needs. 
They  saw  God  in  a  new  aspect.  Henceforth 
he  was  more  to  them,  and  other,  than  the 
Jehovah  of  whom  they  had  heard  and  read  in 
the  synagogue.  They  had  new  feelings,  they 
acted  differently,  toward  him  than  before.  At 
Sychar  by  the  ancient  well  he  shone  with  the 
rays  of  sweet  pity  and  irresistibly  pure  love 
upon  the  heart  of  the  abandoned,  profligate 
adulteress.  She  who  so  long  had  defied  the 
God  whom  men  taught,  was  in  a  moment 


224  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

melted  to  trustful  confidence,  confession  of  her 
sins,  deep  penitence,  and  enthusiastic  love.  The 
exposure  of  her  evil  did  not  make  her  defiant. 
But  so  gently,  so  pityingly  was  it  done  that  her 
inmost  soul  was  touched.  Contrition  filled  her 
breast.  The  beauty  and  strength  of  purity 
were  revealed  to  her,  and  her  whole  being  sank 
in  adoration  down  before  it.  She  had  never 
known  God  before.  Now  she  knew  him.  "I 
that  speak  to  thee  am  he!"  Was  this  God? 
This  the  love  of  God?  Could  purity  be  so 
gentle,  pity  so  sweet,  righteousness  so  helpful, 
uplifting?  To  meet  God  had  been  a  terrifying, 
unendurable  thought.  She  met  him;  he  was 
Love  itself.  To  part  from  him  now  was  pain. 

j  He  was  a  Spirit,  a  Principle  of  life ;  forever 
'would  she  stay  with  him,  move  and  have  her 

j  being  in  him. 

So  in  scores  and  hundreds  of  cases  the  God- 
Man  manifested  forth  his  excellence.  Now 
touching  sight  into  eyes  born  blind,  now  speak- 
ing speech  into  tongues  that  were  dumb ;  then 
looking  strength  into  palsied  limbs,  health  into 
the  sick,  wholeness  to  the  lame  and  halt;  and 
again  feeding  the  hungry  by  thousands,  weep- 
ing with  the  tearful  that  stood  by  their  new- 
made  graves,  or  speaking  life  into  bodies  dead 
for  days.  Wherever  there  was  want,  he  re- 
lieved it;  where  there  were  sorrow  and  grief, 
he  assuaged  them;  where  there  were  fallen 
ones,  or  falling,  he  lifted  them  up.  Wherever 


Salvation.  225 

help  was  needed  for  body  or  soul,  he  was  the 
Helper;  where  darkness  was,  he  the  Light; 
where  sin  and  death  were,  he  was  the  Kesur- 
rection  and  the  Life.  Everywhere  he  was  the 
same  Love,  shedding  forth  his  saving  rays  like 
the  sun,  in  a  myriad  different  hues  and  direc- 
tions, that  men  might  know  of  what  the  perfect 
white  Light  consists,  what  God  is. 

And  how  black  and  ugly  in  this  light  ap- 
peared the  shadows  of  sin!  Before,  sin  had 
been  known  only  as  a  transgression  of  the 
Commandments;  now  it  was  seen  to  be  far 
more  than  this,  an  ingrate  spurning  of  a  Friend's 
true  and  faithful  love ;  no  more  only  wrong 
conduct,  but  the  mark  of  a  bad  character,  a 
mean,  low,  corrupt  heart.  And  souls,  more- 
over, that  had  scarcely  suspected  its  presence 
before,  suddenly  became  conscious  thereof, 
smote  themselves  on  the  breast,  and  cried  out 
with  broken  and  contrite  hearts,  ' '  God  be  mer- 
ciful to  me  a  sinner!"  Priests,  Scribes,  Phari- 
sees, Sadducees,  the  rich  and  noble,  the  honored 
and  respected,  who  'neath  their  fine  exterior 
had  kept  their  inner  vileness  hidden  from  their 
fellows,  were  now  seen  by  all  as  they  were. 
Their  rigid  legalism  and  punctilious  ritualism 
no  longer  sheltered  them.  Ah,  how  they 
writhed  under  the  exposure !  How  they  hated 
him  who  had  torn  off  their  masks !  Straight- 
way the  oneness  of  Sin  appeared.  It  is  all  the 
brood  of  one  monster  principle.  And  now  that 
8 


22G  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

danger  threatened,  behold  how  it  instinctively 
revealed  its  kinship !  Secret  and  open  sinners, 
Pharisee  and  Sadducee,  Jew  and  Eoman,  rich 
and  poor,  low  and  high,  all  who  before  had 
hated  one  another,  now  suddenly  were  drawn 
together  into  an  intimate  fellowship  and  close 
alliance,  to  entrap,  to  betray,  to  destroy  this 
Holy  One.  As  never  before  men  saw  the  fun- 
damental unity  of  all  sin  in  however  many  and 
varied  forms  it  might  appear;  and  its  all-per- 
vading presence  no  less,  its  terrible  strength  and 
power.  No  wonder  the  race  had  been  degen- 
erating with  such  a  deadly  force  at  work  within 
it! 

And  how  should  ever  the  divine  Life-princi- 
ple supplant  this  deeply  rooted  Death-principle 
in  human  nature?  How  would  ever  love  to 
God  be  made  to  take  the  place  of  hatred  to  God, 
which  sin  essentially  is?  In  order  to  this  it 
was  necessary  for  men  clearly  to  distinguish 
between  the  divine  in  Christ  and  his  mere  hu- 
man personality.  They  would  have  to  love 
not  only  the  lovely  man,  but  the  Love  in 
the  man ;  and  not  only  this,  but  also  the  Love 
distinct  from  the  man,  wherever  and  in  what- 
ever form  it  might  manifest  itself.  From  lov- 
ing and  following  the  gentle,  pure,  honest, 
forgiving,  self-sacrificing  Nazarene,  they  needed 
to  love  and  follow  gentleness,  purity,  honesty, 
self-sacrifice  themselves,  as  divine,  living  prin- 
ciples, rays  of  the  pure  Spirit  of  God.  This 


Salvation.  227 

Christ  told  his  disciples  over  and  over  again, 
assuring  them  ' '  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I 
go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter 
will  not  come  unto}Tou,"  "even  the  Spirit  of 
truth ;  whom  the  world  cannot  receive,  because 
it  seeth  him  not,  neither  knoweth  him :  but  ye 
know  him ;  for  he  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall 
be  in  you. ' ' 

Nothing  is  clearer  than  that  Christ  realized 
this  necessity  more  and  more  the  more  he  felt 
the  growing  affection  and  devotion  of  his  fol- 
lowers. His  anxiety  to  keep  plainly  before 
them  the  distinction  between  his  human  per- 
sonality and  his  essential  divine  self  often  be- 
comes painfully  evident.  He  dwells  upon  it 
continually.  "He  that  believeth  on  me,"  he 
says,  "believeth  not  on  me,  but  on  him  that 
sent  me.  And  he  that  seeth  me  seeth  him  that 
sent  me."  He  whom  they  beheld  was  only 
the  manifestation  in  the  flesh  of  the  Eternal 
One  who  is  a  Spirit.  For  the  same  reason  he 
so  often  speaks  of  himself  in  terms  incompati- 
ble with  his  being  as  an  individual  human  per- 
son: "I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life,"  he  says;  "Before  Abraham  was,  I  am;" 
4 '  Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you. ' '  Even  though 
made  flesh,  yet  always  he  remained  the  eternal 
Word. 

But  how  difficult  was  it  to  teach  this  fact  to 
his  followers !  It  must  needs  be  that  the  Word 
be  severed  from  the  flesh  if  this  truth  should 


228  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ever  be  fully  learned.  Did  he  remain  with  men 
in  visible  form,  they  would  inevitably  confound 
the  form  with  the  essence,  and  love  the  .Man 
instead  of  the  God.  Therefore  the  "expedi- 
ency" for  them  that  he  go  away,  even  though 
it  be  full  of  the  pain  and  disgrace  of  a  cruel 
death  for  himself.  With  infinite  tenderness 
and  delicacy  did  he  try  to  prepare  his  loved 
ones  for  the  tremendous  sacrifice  to  be  made 
voluntarily,  out  of  pure  love  for  them.  "A 
little  while,  and  ye  shall  not  see  me."  And 
when  even  their  affection  blinded  them  so  that 
they  would  not  comprehend  his  sad  meaning, 
he  finally  had  to  say  plainly,  "I  came  forth 
from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into  the  world : 
again  I  leave  the  world,  and  go  to  the  Father.  • J 
Now  they  must  surely  understand  that  their 
good  Shepherd  would  lay  down  his  life  for  the 
sheep. 

Nor  were  they  long  left  in  doubt  as  to  what 
was  the  wolf  and  the  robber.  The  great  Ad- 
versary had  all  the  while  stealthily,  cautiously, 
cunningly,  been  concentrating  his  wicked  forces 
for  the  final  blow.  The  Serpent  had  drawn  his 
hideous  coils  ever  tighter  around  the  Innocent 
One.  He  raised  his  hateful  crest  to  strike ; — it 
was  Sin.  And  every  sinner  felt,  and  must  still 
feel  to-day,  ' '  In  so  far  as  I  have  sinned,  I  had  a 
part  in  that  crime ;  I  helped  to  betray,  I  helped 
to  crucify  him.  He  died  because  of  my  sins  as 
much  and  as  really  as  for  the  sins  of  the  Scribes 


Salvation.  229 

and  Pharisees.1"  But  Love  also  was  ready. 
It  would  not  shirk  the  pain.  It  would  face  the 
death  which  sin  had  enthroned  in  the  world, 
would  bear  the  penalty,  innocent  yet  "made 
sin  for  us, ' '  and  bearing  thus  the  sin  of  the  world 
would  conquer  the  world  and  sin.  Love  should 
not  be  destroyed  by  death ;  but  by  dying  should 
forever  take  from  death  its  venomous  sting. 
Strongly,  therefore,  heroically,  sublimely,  it 
faced  the  foul  attack.  Cursed  and  reviled,  it 
blessed  in  return.  Smitten  on  one  cheek,  it 
turned  the  other.  Never  an  angry  word  es- 
caped it ;  not  even  a  murmur  of  impatience. 
Under  the  weight  of  the  cross,  it  wept  indeed, 
but  wept  for  the  godless  city  below.  Hanging 
in  agony  upon  it,  it  thought  of  the  bereaved 
disciple,  and  cared  for  the  desolate  mother. 
With  the  spear  piercing  its  side,  it  prayed 
"Father,  forgive  them!"  them  who  pierced 
me,  them  whose  sins  killed  me;  all  sinners,  for 
all  had  part  in  the  crime ;  all  men,  for  all  have 
sinned. 

The  victory  was  won.  Having  loved  his 
own,  he  loved  them  to  the  end.  It  was  fin- 
ished. Love  had  endured  the  final,  supreme 
test.  The  fatal  power  of  sin  had  been  demon- 
strated, and  the  vital  power  of  holiness  as  well. 
He  died  for  us  once,  that  we  might  die  unto 
sin.  The  Way  of  Life  was  opened;  through 
the  very  gates  of  Death  it  leads.  To  live  unto 
God  is  to  die  unto  self  and  to  the  world.  The 


230  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Man  Christ  was  dead.  But  the  God  Christ 
could  say,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world."  Love  would  now  abide 
forever  upon  earth;  a  new  and  mighty  element 
in  human  environment,  to  which  henceforth 
men  must  adjust  themselves,  or  die.  To  live 
now  means  to  bring  the  character  into  corre- 
spondence with  this  eternal  reality.  The  sinner 
who  refuses,  perishes.  "The  wages  of  sin  is 
death." 

Such  is  an  outline  of  the  facts  drawn  from 
the  sacred  history,  the  precious  facts  by  which 
the  world  is  saved.  It  shows  us  how  by  the 
life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  a  new  factor  was 
brought  into  human  environment,  requiring  a 
new  adaptation  of  man's  life  thereto,  and  there- 
by generating  new  and  higher  powers,  a  new 
and  higher  form  of  existence :  life  eternal.  It 
thus  accords  fully  with  the  requirements  of 
Evolution. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  sustains  the  essential 
truths  of  Christian  theology,  so  far  as  this  cor- 
rectly interprets  the  historical  facts.  There  is, 
indeed,  nothing  in  it  of  the  heathen  idea  of 
sacrifice,  of  an  offering  made  to  an  angry  Deity 
to  appease  him,  or  to  "satisfy,"  in  this  sense, 
outraged  Justice.  There  is  no  literal  substitu- 
tion of  an  innocent  victim,  dragged  by  the 
guilty  ones  to  the  altar  to  suffer  the  punishment 
they  deserved,  and  thus  buying  their  immunity. 
Nor  is  there  any  such  notion  in  it  of  "imputed 


Salvation.  <  231 

righteousness,"  and  "imputed  sin,"  as  has  been 
held  and  preached  by  some.  But  it  includes 
under  it  the  truer  view  of  Mozley  and  that  of 
Robertson.  The  former  truly  says  that  the 
scriptural  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  involves 
4 '  a  moral  kind  of  substitution.  It  is  one  person 
suffering  in  behalf  of  another,  for  the  sake  of 
another :  in  that  sense  he  takes  the  place  and 
acts  in  the  stead  of  another.  .  .  .  But  this 
is  the  moral  substitution  which  is  inherent  in 
acts  of  love  and  labor  for  others;  it  is  a  totally 
different  thing  from  the  literal  substitution  of 
one  person  for  another  in  punishment."2  At 
the  same  time  it  shows  that  Christ  did  live  and 
die  in  our  stead  in  a  true  sense.  As  Robertson 
declares,  "That  he  died  for  all  is  true — first, 
Because  he  was  the  victim  of  the  sin  of  all. 
.  .  .  Again,  he  died  for  all,  in  that  his 
sacrifice  represents  the  sacrifice  of  all.  ... 
Gazing  on  that  perfect  Life,  we,  as  it  were, 
say,  '  That  is  my  religion,  that  is  my  righteous- 
ness— what  I  want  to  be,  which  I  am  not ;  that 
is  my  offering,  my  life  as  I  would  wish  to  give 
it, — freely  and  not  checked,  entire  and  per- 
fect.' "  3  And  our  view  too,  in  so  far  embraces 
that  of  Schleiermacher,  that ' '  by  the  sufferings 
of  Christ  punishment  may  be  said  to  be  abol- 
ished, because  in  the  communion  of  his  blessed 


8  University  Sermons. 
3  Sermons. 


232  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

life,  evil,  which  becomes  a  vanishing  element, 
is  no  longer  felt  us  a  penalty.  It  is  in  his 
sufferings  that  we  behold  his  holiness,  and  his 
blessedness  also,  which  are  seen  to  be  invincible 
under  the  severest  test.  By  entering  into  his 
sufferings,  the  conviction  of  his  holiness  and 
blessedness  is  brought  home  to  us." 

No  violence  is  thus  done  to  the  doctrine  of  a 
vicarious  sacrifice;  for  the  life  and  death  of 
Christ  were  most  truly  vicarious.  And  only  as 
we  make  Christ  our  real  Yicar,  our  great  and 
perfect  Representative,  do  we  reap  any  saving 
virtue  from  him.  But  this  can  only  be  done 
by  ourselves  so  living,  so  conforming  our 
being  to  his,  that  he  may  truly  represent  us. 

The  idea  even  that  Christ's  sacrifice  induced 
God  to  save  us,  while  not  true  in  its  bare  lit- 
eralness,  may  yet  be  said  to  be  involved  in  one 
aspect  of  the  case.  It  changed  God's  relation 
to  man,  by  changing  man's  relation  to  God. 
So  likewise  it  may  be  said  to  have  enabled  God 
to  save  man,  by  removing  the  great  hinderance 
in  man,  namely  sin,  which  stood  in  the  way 
of  his  salvation.  It  was  an  actual  removal  and 
destruction  of  sin, — not  indeed  as  an  abstract, 
outward,  objective  thing,  a  cloud  hanging  be- 
tween the  divine  and  the  human,  but  as  a  sub- 
jective power  and  agency  working  in  man, — by 
constraining  him  through  love  to  renounce  and  \ 
abolish  sin  in  his  life,  and  practice  righteousness  I 
instead.  In  this  sense,  too,  it  caused  divine ' 


Salvation.  233 

justice  to  be  "satisfied,"  since  it  gave  to  man 
the  impulse  and  power  to  be  just  henceforth, 
making  him  be  just,  and  thus  really  "justifying" 
him.  "It  was  not  the  satisfaction  of  justice 
apart  from  love,  nor  as  the  precedent  condition 
of  the  revelation  of  love.  For  in  relation  to 
the  law  there  was  not  merely  the  satisfaction, 
but  the  fulfillment  of  the  law.  It  was  not  a 
satisfaction  of  justice  by  the  imposition  upon 
the  innocent  of  the  punishments  of  the  guilty, 
nor,  by  the  substitution  of  an  equivalent  of  the 
measure  through  a  series  of  legal  fictions,  and 
in  that  there  would  be  no  measure  of  gain.  In 
a  higher  sense  justice  is  satisfied  when  righteous- 
ness is  actualized  on  the  earth.  Justice  is  vin- 
dicated when  it  is  asserted  and  established.  It 
is  not  a  compensation  to  balance  i  a  justice  that 
is  required,  nor  an  equivalent  for  sin  or  for  the 
sequences  of  sin,  but  the  power  to  overcome 
evil,  and  to  bring  men  out  of  sin. ' ' 4 

Nothing  of  all  this  would  have  been  brought 
to  pass  if  Christ  had  not  died.  By  his  death, 
therefore,  he  became  our  Justification,  he  pur- 
chased salvation  for  us,  became  our  Redeemer, 
the  Ransom  by  which  we  are  loosed  from  the 
bonds  of  sin  and  of  death. 

In  all  this,  it  will  be  seen,  there  is  nothing 
incompatible  with  the  theory  of  Evolution. 
That  theory  may  rather  be  said  not  only  to 

4Elisha  Mulford— The  Republic  of  God. 


234  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

admit,  but  implicitly  to  require  it.  For  it  every- 
where recognizes  the  great  law,  the  universal 
law  of  love,  of  which  the  atonement  is  but  an 
application  and  exemplification,  according  to 
which  all  advance  from  inferior  to  superior, 
from  lower  to  higher,  forms  of  being  is  ever 
brought  about  only  through  sacrifice  and  suf- 
fering. ' '  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the 
ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone,"  nothing 
higher  comes  from  it ;  4 '  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit."  Except  a  woman  endure 
agony  and  pain,  and  herself  descend  to  the  very 
borders  of  the  grave,  she  may  not  reach  the 
high  estate  of  motherhood  and  give  life  to  an 
immortal  soul.  Always  the  higher  must  reach 
down  to  lift  up  the  lower.  Ever  the  above  can 
draw  up  to  itself  the  below  only  by  paying  the 
price  of  suffering  and  sacrifice.  It  is  the  "ex- 
piation "  that  superiority  makes  for  inferiority. 
It  is  the  divine  law  that  lifted  up  Christ  on  the 
cross  so  that  he  might  draw  all  men  unto  him, 
the  law  of  perfect  love.  It  was  dimly  fore- 
shadowed in  the  Hebrew  ritual  in  which  "with- 
out shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission;"  abun- 
dantly illustrated  in  nature;  recognized  by 
science;  and  finally  fulfilled  in  the  highest 
sphere  when  the  Lamb  of  God  was  slain  for  us 
on  Calvary's  altar. 

At  the  same  time  the  law  still  operates  and 
must  be  obeyed  by  every  one  who  would  reap  its 
blessings.  And  any  view  of  the  atonement 


Salvation.  235 

that  would  make  its  efficacy  consist  in  Christ's 
having  done  something,  or  suffered  something, 
in  order  that  we  might  not  have  to  do  it,  cer- 
tainly does  violence  to  this  truth,  is  incompati- 
ble with  the  principles  of  Evolution,  and  un- 
warranted by  Scripture.  These  in  no  wise 
oppose,  however,  but  freely  accept  the  truer 
view  that  the  practical  efficacy  lay  in  his  giving 
us  the  inclination  and  power  to  live  a  higher 
life,  a  life  different  from  the  carnal  life  of  self- 
ishness, and  based  on  the  principle  of  pure, 
unselfish  love.  While,  as  we  have  seen,  we 
may  speak  of  the  effect  of  Christ  as  changing 
the  attitude  of  God  towards  man,  pleasing,  re- 
conciling, satisfying,  propitiating  him,  it  must 
ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  such  language  can- 
not be  taken  literally,  but  must  be  spiritually 
interpreted.  In  God  is  no  variableness  neither 
shadow  of  turning.  The  only  change  that  is 
possible,  and  the  only  that  is  necessary  in 
order  to  man's  salvation,  is  in  our  attitude  to 
God.  No  change  of  thought,  feeling  or  dis- 
position in  him  is  required,  even  if  it  were  think- 
able. But  a  radical  change  in  us  is  absolutely  es- 
sential, a  change  of  our  whole  nature  and  mode 
of  life,  a  thorough  conversion,  an  entire  re- 
generation. In  this  alone  consists  the  saving 
efficacy  of  the  atonement.  And  this  truth  is 
being  clearly  recognized  by  the  profoundest 
theologians,  who,  like  Canon  Mozley,  admit  that 
' '  The  atoning  act  of  the  Son,  as  an  act  of  love  on 


236  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

behalf  of  sinful  man,  appealed  to  wonder  and 
praise;  the  effect  of  the  act  in  changing  the 
regard  of  the  Father  towards  the  sinner,  was 
only  the  representation,  in  the  sublime  and  ineffa- 
ble region  of  mystery,  of  an  effect  which  men 
recognized  in  their  own  minds. ' ' 5 

It  is  not  less  truly,  however,  on  this  account, 
an  atonement  that  was  made  for  man  by  Christ. 
But  it  recognizes  the  necessity  of  man's  share 
in  the  work  in  order  to  a  share  in  the  fruits. 
It  gives  a  reason  for  the  requirement  of  faith  on 
which  the  Scriptures  so  strenuously  insist.  As 
in  Christ  there  was  an  at-onement  between 
the  divine  and  the  human,  so  our  salvation  from 
sin  and  the  redemption  of  the  entire  race,  de- 
pend upon  the  same  at-onement  which  is  made 
possible  by  the  removal  of  sin  through  the  love 
for  God  which  Christ's  life  and  death  called  in- 
to action  in  man,  impelling  man  to  adjust  him- 
self to  the  divine,  to  bring  himself  into  the 
same  conformity  with  God  that  subsisted  in 
Christ;  to  hide  his  life  with  Christ  in  God. 
The  Saviour's  work  consisted  in  bringing  the 
Love-Spirit,  God,  into  human  consciousness. 
Man's  work,  in  order  to  be  saved,  consists  in 
adjusting  his  life  to  this  Spirit.  In  the  words 
of  Erskine:  "The  dispensation  of  Christ  em- 
braces in  it  a  oneness  with  the  mind  of  God ; 
not  merely  a  readiness  to  do  his  will  when  we 

6  University  Sermons. 


Salvation.  237 

know  it,  but  a  participation  in  his  mind,  so  that 
by  a  participation  in  the  divine  nature  we  enter 
into  the  reason  of  his  will,  and  do  not  merely 
obey  the  authority  of  his  will. ' ' 8  Thus  it  is  true  in 
the  highest  sense  that  we ' '  are  saved  by  grace, ' ' 
or  love;  by  this  new  factor  brought  by  Christ 
into  man's  conscious  environment. 

But  it  is  equally  true  that  while  ' '  saved  by 
grace,"  it  is  "through  faith."  Not  indeed  by 
any  magic  virtue  inhering  in,  or  imputed  to,  the 
mere  act  of  belief.  But  simply  through  man's 
accepting  the  new  saving  factor  in  his  environ- 
ment, and  making  Love  the  foundation  princi- 
ple of  his  life.  This  is  faith,  as  Dr.  Lyman 
Abbott  once  defined  it,  I  think  in  The  Christian 
Union,  ' '  the  perception  and  reception  of  God  in 
and  through  Christ  Jesus." 

This  is  the  faith  that  effects  the  new  birth ; 
changes  radically  man's  whole  nature,  convert- 
ing, turning  him  to  the  higher  spiritual  life  of 
holiness,  from  the  lower  carnal  life  of  sin  in 
which  he  was  reverting  to  brute  existence.  It 
puts  off  from  him  the  old  man  with  his  selfish 
principles  and  downward  tendencies,  and  puts 
on  the  new  man  who  is  renewed  in  the  image 
of  God.  It  is  this  faith  that  fulfills  the  exhorta- 
tion of  Paul, ' '  Be  not  conformed  to  this  world : 
but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your 
mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and 

6  Memoirs. 


238  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

acceptable,  and  perfect,  will  of  God;"  and 
makes  us  understand  the  meaning  of  his  strange 
assertion,  "I  live:  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me."  By  this  faith  is  the  reversionary 
tendency  in  human  life  arrested.  In  the  love 
by  which  faith  worketh,  from  which  it  is  in- 
separable, is  the  power  applied  by  which  alone 
this  tendency  can  be  permanently  counter- 
acted and  overcome.  By  it  is  the  spirit  freed 
from  the  choking  grasp  of  sin  and  brought 
into  communion  with  the  Eternal  Spirit,  in 
whom  alone  is  Life,  severance  from  whom  is 
Death. 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  the  view  ad- 
vanced as  the  one  on  which  Evolution  and  the 
Scriptures  can  unite,  does  not  lay  as  much 
stress  as  is  commonly  done  on  personal  escape 
from  the  penalty  of  sin,  whether  in  this  life  or 
in  the  future.  It  does  not  look  upon  this  as  a 
consideration  of  the  first  importance.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  clearly  implied. 

The  penalty  of  sin  being  not  an  arbitrarily 
imposed  punishment,  but  a  natural  and  neces- 
sary consequence  of  wrong-doing,  it  follows  of 
course  that,  as  soon  as  the  latter  is  stopped, 
the  former  will  cease.  Kemove  the  cause,  and 
the  effect  will  be  removed.  Not,  however, 
absolutely  and  wholly.  We  reap  the  penalty 
of  sins  long  ago  committed,  and  for  which 
deep  penitence  may  have  sprung  up  in  our 
breasts.  So  also  we  often  have  to  partake  in 


Salvation.  239 

the  penalty  of  others'  sins,  sins  which  we  did 
not  and  would  not  commit. 

These  are  facts  of  experience  that  remain 
whatever  theory  of  atonement  we  may  adopt. 
And  they  show  the  error  and  futility,  as  well 
as  the  moral  wrong,  of  holding  up  escape  from 
uncomfortable  penalties  as  an  inducement  for 
men  to  forsake  sin,  to  repent  and  believe.  True 
repentance,  real  saving  faith,  must  have  a  differ- 
ent motive  than  selfishness  in  any  form.  But 
it  is  also  no  less  a  fact  of  experience,  I  think, 
that  from  all  such  suffering  the  sting  of  guilt 
is  removed.  We  have  to  endure  the  penalty 
whether  we  repent  or  not.  But  how  different- 
ly after  than  before  conversion!  Afterwards, 
when  we  realize  that  it  is  the  result  of  past 
sins,  we  accept  it  with  patient  humility.  We 
feel  that  it  is  but  just.  Before,  too,  we  may 
have  felt  its  justice;  but  this  only  added  to 
its  pain;  and  how  we  rebelled  against  it! 
It  was  a  thousand  times  harder  to  bear  than 
now ;  the  real  quantum  of  suffering  in  us  was  a 
thousand  times  greater.  And  when  we  are 
called  on  to  endure  our  share  of  the  penalty  of 
the  world's  sin,  we  do  so  precisely  as  we  accept 
the  consequence  of  ignorantly  breaking  any  of 
the  physical  laws  of  nature.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  inexorable,  beneficent  order  by  which  God 
directs  the  world.  It  may  be  physically  painful. 
But  there  is  no  sense  of  individual  guilt,  no  re- 
proach of  conscience,  no  feeling  of  self-despis- 


240  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

ing,  nor  revelation  of  an  ingrate,  bad  character. 
This  removal  of  the  consciousness  of  badness,' 
of  moral  guilt,  is  all  that  we  mean  by  pardonj 
and  forgiveness.  It  is  all  that  the  facts  warrant./ 
It  is  the  result  indeed  of  our  standing  in  differ- 
ent relations  to  God  than  before;  but  surely 
not  the  consequence  of  God's  having  changed 
his  attitude  towards  us.  It  is  a  change  in  our 
spirit ;  not  in  the  eternally  Unchangeable  One. 

What  then  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter?  "What  are  the  facts  on  which  Evolu- 
tion and  Christianity  are  at  one? 

Simply  these :  Before  Christ  came  the  world 
had  reached  a  stage  in  its  development  where 
it  was  not  only  ready  to  enter  upon  a  new  and 
higher  stage,  but  where,  if  it  did  not  do  this, 
it  would  inevitably  degenerate,  through  the  in- 
herent tendency  to  reversion  which  manifests 
itself  in  every  organism,  and  can  be  counter- 
acted only  by  new  adjustments  between  the 
inner  and  outer  relations,  called  forth  by  some 
essential  change  in  the  environment.  In  other 
words,  the  world  was  lost  in  trespasses  and  sin. 
It  was  becoming  consciously  worse  and  worse. 
It  could  only  be  saved  by  the  generation  of  a 
new  power  within  man  stronger  than  the  in- 
herent principle  of  sin.  This  could  be  pro- 
duced only  by  some  such  occurrence  outside  of 
it  as  would  bring  about  a  change  of  nature 
within  it.  Then  came  Christ,  Son  of  Man  and 
Son  of  God  at  once,  "to  seek  and  to  save  that 


Salvation.  241 

which  was  lost."  By  his  pure  and  blameless 
life  wholly  for  others,  and  his  innocent  death 
a  Sacrifice  for  sin,  he  destroyed  the  power  of 
sin  and  death,  and  brought  the  infinite  love  of 
God,  a  working,  saving  power,  into  human 
consciousness.  This  induces  a  re-adjustment 
of  man's  thoughts,  feelings,  powers,  actions,  to 
God,  to  his  fellow  men,  to  himself,  and  to  all 
the  world.  It  generates  love  as  a  permanent 
motive  principle  and  rule  of  life  in  the  character. 
It  conforms  malTlnore  and  more  to  God  and 
his  laws,  and  then,  refiexly  also  transforms  the 
spiritual  nature  of  man  himself.  Man  is  saved 
by  love  through  faith,  is  made  a  new  creature, 
with  new  and  lofty  aspirations,  new  capabilities 
and  powers,  becomes  also  a  son  of  God.  By 
this  process  he  is  raised  higher  and  higher,  and 
brought  into  closer  and  closer  union  with  the  di- 
vine. From  hopeless  death  he  is  rescued  and  pre- 
pared for  a  perfect  and  eternal  life.  For  "Per- 
fect correspondence,"  in  the  words  of  Herbert 
Spencer,  "would  be  perfect  Jife.  Were  there  no 
changes  in  the  environment  but  such  as  the  or- 
ganism had  adapted  changes  to  meet,  and  were 
it  never  to  fail  in  the  efficiency  with  which  it  met 
them,  there  would  be  eternal  existence  and  uni- 
versal knowledge. "  7  Or  as  the  same  truth  is  ex- 
pressed by  One  greater  than  Spencer, ' '  This  is  life 
eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  sent." 

7  Principles  of  Biology,  vol.  i. 


vm. 

RELIGION. 


"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the 
first  and  great  commandment.  And  the  second  is  like 
unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

(MATT.  22: 37-39.) 

"How  truly  its  central  position  is  impregnable,  religion 
has  never  adequately  realized." 

(HERBERT  SPENCER — First  Principles.") 

"Now  that  Science  has  made  the  world  around  articulate, 
it  speaks  to  Religion  with  a  twofold  purpose.     In  the  first 
place  it  offers  to  corroborate  Theology,  and  in  the  second 
to  purify  it." 
(HENRY  DRUMMOND — Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World.) 

"Christianity  is  not  primarily  a  system  of  doctrines 
arranged  in  rational  order,  but  a  system  of  beings  in  right 
relation  to  God  and  in  harmony  with  each  other. ' ' 

(NEWMAN  SMYTH,  in  Andover  Review.) 

"It  is  not  a  system  of  worship  that  Christianity  came  to 
bring  to  mankind It  came  to  bind  men  to- 
gether in  just  and  true  relations,  to  infuse  into  their  soci- 
eties the  Divine  spirit,  to  transfigure  the  coarse  vesture  of 
humanity  with  that  divinity  which  is  love,  till  it  shall  be- 
come a  temple  in  which  He  dwells." 

(W.  H.  FREMANTLE—  The  Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life.) 


s 


'  'The  Christian  religion  will  be  the  redemption  of  the 
natural  man  out  of  his  disunion  from  God  into  freedom 
God  through  the  full  revelation  of  God's  grace  in  Jesus 
Christ,  the  object  of  its  faith." 
(BIEDERMANK — Christl.  Dogmatik — quoted  by 

Dr.  8.  Harris  in  The  Self -Revelation  of  God.) 


VIII. 
RELIGION. 

In  concluding  this  series  of  Studies  with 
the  discussion  of  the  subject  of  religion,  I  do 
not  intend  to  treat  of  the  history  of  religion, 
of  its  origin  and  growth.  The  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion on  this  subject  has  been  already  incident- 
ally given  with  sufficient  fullness  for  our  pur- 
pose. Eecognizing  with  Lowell  that 

"God  sends  his  teachers  unto  every  age, 
To  every  clime,  and  every  race  of  men, 
With  revelations  fitted  for  their  growth 
And  shape  of  mind,  nor  gives  the  realm  of  Truth 
Into  the  selfish  rule  of  one  sole  race: 
Therefore  each  form  of  worship  that  hath  swayed 
The  life  of  man,  and  given  it  to  grasp 
The  master-key  of  knowledge,  reverence, 
Infolds  some  germs  of  goodness  and  of  right;"  l 

Evolution  accepts  the  verdict  of  comparative 
theology  with  reference  to  the  heathen  religions, 
as  expressed  by  one  of  the  ablest  contributors 
to  that  science,  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke, 
who  says,  "They  must  contain  more  truth 
than  error,  and  must  have  been,  on  the  whole, 
useful  to  mankind.  We  do  not  believe  that 
they  originated  in  human  fraud,  that  their  es- 

1  Rhoecus. 


246  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

sence  is  superstition,  that  there  is  more  false- 
hood than  truth  in  their  doctrines,  that  their 
moral  tendency  is  mainly  injurious."2  But  at 
the  same  time  it  fully  realizes  that  they  were 
only  tentative  religions,  and  that  in  Christianity 
we  have  the  most  fully  developed  flower  that 
the  trunk  of  divine  truth  has  yet  brought  forth. 
The  little  grain  of  mustard  seed  sown  in  Pales- 
tine has  already  become  ' '  the  greatest  among 
herbs,"  the  most  perfect  religion  that  has  ever 
appeared.  Eejoicing  in  this  fact,  yet  at  the 
same  time  humbly  acknowledging  that  its 
fruits,  meant  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  and 
the  bringing  of  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
towards  men,  are  not  all  that  could  be  desired, 
I  simply  wish  to  examine  it  in  the  light  we 
have  gained  from  the  application  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Evolution  in  the  foregoing  studies.  For 
I  believe  that  with  the  aid  of  this  light  we  shall 
see  more  clearly  than  otherwise  why  this  high- 
est form  of  religion  is  not  bringing  forth  fruits 
more  commensurate  with  its  capabilities,  and 
accordant  with  its  lofty  aim ;  and  especially  also 
shall  be  made  to  understand  what  religion  is 
meant  to  do,  can  do,  and  must  do  for  the  salva- 
tion of  mankind,  if  it  would  be  loyal  to  its  own 
Scriptures ;  what  we  must  do  if  we  would  not 
be  untrue  to  ourselves,  our  fellow  men,  and  to 
our  God. 

2  Ten  Great  Religions,    vol.  i. 


Religion.  247 

The  essential  element  in  all  religion  is  the 
striving  after  union  with  God.  This  may  have 
been  very  vague  and  feeble  in  the  earlier,  low- 
est forms  of  religion ;  but  it  is  the  avowed  aim 
and  purpose  of  Christianity,  the  latest,  high- 
est form.  Upon  the  view  then  that  we  take 
of  the  being  and  nature  of  God,  and  of  man, 
will  depend  our  view  of  what  constitutes  union 
between  them,  and  of  how  it  is  to  be  effected; 
will  depend,  in  short,  the  character  of  our  re- 
ligion. 

The  prevalent  restlessness  in  theology,  and 
perturbation  of  men's  religion,  are  mainly 
caused,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  modifica- 
tion Evolution  has  made  in  the  popular  con- 
ception of  God.  It  has  shown  him  to  be  in 
many  respects  different  from  the  representation 
that  had  become  traditional.  Hence  there  has 
to  be  a  re-adjustment  of  all  our  beliefs  and 
practices  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to  God.  This 
is  now  going  on  in  the  religious  world,  to  the 
alarm  of  many,  and  the  harm  of  some,  perhaps, 
but  surely  only  to  the  permanent  benefit  of  the 
true  religion.  Thus  the  divine  truth  has  ever 
grown  in  the  past.  With  every  new  and 
higher  conception  of  God  there  has  been  a  new 
co-ordination  of  dogmas  and  practices  to  bring 
them  into  some  kind  of  harmony  with  it.  ' '  If 
the  god  be  an  ideal  of  beauty, "  says  Baring- 
Gould,  "and  his  worship  be  conducted  on  a  type 
the  perfection  of  ugliness,  one  of  two  results 


248  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

must  ensue ;  the  idea  of  the  god  will  be  lowered 
to  the  type  of  worship,  or  the  service  will  be 
revolted  from  by  the  worshipper.  Thus,  some 
of  the  Mexican  gods  were  ideally  beneficent  and 
holy,  and  the  devotion  felt  to  wards  them  ex- 
hibited itself  in  the  sacrifice  of  that  which  by 
man  is  regarded  as  the  most  precious  offering  he 
can  make—  human  life.  When  these  benevolent 
gods'  altars  reeked  with  gore,  their  own  charac- 
ter deteriorated,  and  they  came  to  be  regarded 
as  blood-thirsty  and  malicious  deities.  Man  at 
once  perceives  the  incongruity  between  the 
mode  of  worship  and  the  idea  of  the  object 
worshipped,  and  he  seeks  to  harmonize  them 
in  the  best  way  he  can,  generally  by  dragging 
the  idea  of  God  to  the  level  of  the  mode  of 
worship,  rather  than  by  elevating  the  worship 
to  conform  to  the  idea  of  God."  3  Whether  we 
agree  with  this  writer  or  not  on  this  last  point, 
the  fact  certainly  cannot  be  denied  that  from 
the  very  nature  of  religion,  its  character  must 
in  the  first  place  be  determined,  in  great  part  at 
least,  by  the  conception  of  God  that  prevails. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  so  long  as  the  God 
of  Heine's  childhood  is  retained  in  the  popular 
representation,  a  benignant  old  man  looking 
down  upon  his  terrestrial  creation  from  some 
window  in  the  far-off  celestial  domain ;  or  the 
God  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  moved  by  "mental 

8  Origin  and  Development  of  Religious  Belief,  vol.  i. 


Religion.  249 

affections,"  a  being  "who  hates  evil  and  is 
angry  with  the  wicked  every  day;"  or  a  dread 
Lawgiver  issuing  his  decrees  from  his  great 
white  throne ;  so  long  as  God  is  thought  of  as 
a  Being  with  all  the  limitations  implied  in 
human  personality,  in  parts  and  attributes 
such  as  man  has,  only  greater;  so  long  our 
religion  must  be  not  only  imperfect  and  partial, 
but  erroneous  and  inconsistent  to  an  unwar- 
rantable extent. 

I  know  that  such  wrong  conceptions  are  not 
taught  in  the  Scriptures  if  spiritually  inter- 
preted. I  know  that  theology  no  longer 
teaches  them.  And  even  in  the  popular  belief 
they  are  more  and  more  being  abandoned. 
But  I  know  also  with  equal  positiveness  that 
just  such  conceptions  are  yet  taught  in  more 
than  half  the  pulpits  of  our  land ;  that  in  by  far 
the  most  of  our  Sunday-schools  our  children 
are  indoctrinated  with  them;  and  that  they 
are  the  ideas  that  still  dominate  the  current 
popular  religion,  and  make  that  religion  so 
largely  to  consist  of  a  mere  dead  formalism, 
or  cold  intellectualism,  or  still  worse,  of  ac- 
tually irreligious  superstition. 

After  what  has  been  shown  to  be  the  teach- 
ing of  Evolution  as  to  the  being  and  nature  of 
God,  I  need  not  here  again  point  out  how 
utterly  opposed  it  is  to  such  false  notions,  nor 
how  fully  in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of 
the  Scriptures  and  of  the  most  advanced  Chris- 


250  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

tian  theology.  I  will  content  myself,  there- 
fore, with  showing  in  mere  outline,  its  'direct 
bearing  upon  true  religion,  and  the  great 
advantage  the  latter  must  derive  from  it. 

What  has  aroused  the  fiercest  attacks  upon 
Evolution  and  gained  for  it  the  name  of  the 
philosophy  of  nescience,  and  agnosticism,  is  the 
circumstance  that  Mr.  Spencer  declares  God  to 
be  the  Great  Unknown  and  Unknowable.  But 
as  we  saw,  the  principles  of  Evolution  are  not 
principles  of  nescience ;  agnosticism  in  the  com- 
mon acceptation  of  the  term  is  impossible  up- 
on those  principles,  and  Mr.  Spencer  cannot 
mean  the  words  Unknown  and  Unknowable  to 
be  taken  in  their  absolute  sense.  I  am  glad 
that  this  conviction  has  been  corroborated  since 
I  first  expressed  it,  by  an  English  writer  whose 
minute  and  long  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Spencer's  works  and  opinions  must  make  him 
an  authority  on  the  subject,  and  who  in  his  able 
"Examination  of  the  Structural  Principles  of 
Mr.  Spencer's  Philosophy,"  has  given  us  the 
fullest,  fairest,  and  most  thorough  critique  of 
Evolution  that  has  yet  been  written  anywhere. 
This  author,  the  Rev.  W.  D.  Ground,  declares 
on  this  point  that  "Mr.  Spencer's  whole  asser- 
tion only  means  that  God  is  uncomprehended 
and  incomprehensible."  It  could  not  mean 
anything  else.  And  this  the  Bible  declares  as 
positively  as  Evolution,  and  theology  is  com- 
ing to  realize  more  and  more  clearly. 


Religion.  25 1 

Far  from  being  a  cause  for  reproach  to  Evolu- 
tion, this  is  one  of  the  important  contributions  it 
has  made  to  religion.  From  the  time  that  Moses 
inquired  on  Horeb  into  the  nature  of  the  Most 
High  and  had  to  be  silenced  by  the  rebukeful, 
majestic  declaration,  "I  Am  that  I  Am,"  the 
tendency  has  ever  been  strong  in  man  first  to 
surmise,  to  speculate;  then  to  affirm  and  dog- 
matize ;  and  to  end  by  denouncing  and  cursing 
all  who  will  not  accept  his  speculative  conclu- 
sions. Obeying  this  tendency  he  has  almost 
invariably  succeeded  only  in  degrading  God. 
The  little  that  he  knew  and  could  know  of  the 
divine  he  quickly  supplemented  with  much 
that  he  imagined ;  and  then  the  chief  end  of  his 
religion  speedily  became  nothing  more  than, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  worship  this  creature  of 
his  own  making,  and  on  the  other,  to  defend 
it  against  those  of  his  fellows  who  could  or 
would  not  think  and  feel  and  fancy  as  he  did. 
The  real  purpose  of  religion  nearly  always 
therefore  was  made  altogether  a  secondary 
matter,  or  lost  sight  of  altogether.  Hence  the 
otherwise  strange  fact,  revealed  by  the  study 
of  religions  and  by  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  well,  that  the  more  definite  and 
detailed  the  creeds  which  men  have  held,  the 
less  vital,  practical,  and  real  their  religion. 
Not  that  they  knew  or  believed  too  much,  but 
they  thought  they  knew  more  than  they  did, 
and  that  this  pseudo-knowledge  was  exalted 


252  Tlie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

even  above  their  real  knowledge,  and  distracted 
the  attention  from  the  latter  itself. 

The  great  merit  of  Evolution  is  that  it  strips 
our  belief  of  so  many  cumbersome  pseud-ideas. 
It  shows  clearly  that  all  we  can  possibly  know 
of  the  nature  of  the  Supreme  Being  is  very 
little ;  but  that  little  is  enough,  and  is  so  cer- 
tain and  plain  that  there  can  be  no  dispute 
about  it.  All  beyond  this  is  not  positive  knowl- 
edge at  all,  but  mere  inference,  speculation,  and 
supposition.  It  is  not  on  that  account  neces- 
sarily wrong  or  useless.  But  it  is  unessential. 
And  above  all,  it  can  never  be  more  than  per- 
sonal opinion,  which  may  be  held  or  may  not, 
without  in  any  wise  affecting  a  person's  vital 
religion.  Hold  to  the  few  clear,  known  truths 
of  God,  as  alone  essential ;  and  whatever  else  you 
may  believe  or  not  believe  will  not  affect  your 
religiousness.  No  one  else  may  condemn  you 
therefor,  neither  may  you  condemn  another. 
What  a  blessing  it  would  be  if  this  spirit 
were  once  to  be  fully  adopted  in  the  religious 
world. 

Nor  is  this,  as  has  sometimes  been  charged, 
mere  indifferentism.  Evolution  insists  as  stren- 
uously as  possible  that,  as  far  as  known,  God 
is  really  known.  With  no  uncertain  sound 
it  echoes  the  voice  of  the  great  I  Am.  The 
God  who  is  a  Spirit  is  a  fact  "  deeper  than 
demonstration,  deeper  even  than  definite  cogni- 


Religion.  253 

tion,  deep  as  the  very  nature  of  the  mind."4 
The  Ultimate  Cause  of  all  is  the  omnipotent, 
omnipresent  Power  that  is  active  everywhere ; 
the  eternal,  unchangeable,  all-pervasive  sub- 
stance in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being ;  the  God  who  is  Love.  This  is  more  certain 
than  any  other  certainty.  What  the  prof  oundest 
theology  of  the  age  is  asserting,  that  Evolution 
corroborates  and  proves ;  that,  in  the  language 
of  Dr.  Newman  Smyth,  ''Our  rational  con- 
sciousness is  the  inevitable  resultant  of  the 
powers,  natural  and  spiritual,  among  which  we 
live,  and  which  are  always  acting  upon  us. 
We  are  ourselves  personally  present  in  the 
omnipresence  of  God.  We  have  our  being  in 
Him,  and  our  higher  religious  consciousness  is 
God's  potential  presence  in  the  life  of  men."  5 
I  doubt  whether  this  "dynamical  theism" 
would  ever  have  been  arrived  at  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  influence  of  Evolution  even  upon 

4  First  Principles.  Cf .  also  Mr.  Spencer's  latest  words  on 
the  subject: 

"One  truth  must  ever  grow  clearer — the  truth  that  there 
is  an  Inscrutable  Existence  everywhere  manifested,  to  which 
he  [man]  can  neither  find  nor  conceive  either  beginning  or 
end.  Amid  the  mysteries  which  become  the  more  myste- 
rious the  more  they  are  thought  about,  there  will  remain 
the  one  absolute  certainty,  that  he  is  ever  in  presence  of  an 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all  things  pro- 
ceed."— Ecclesiastical  Institutions. 

6  Andover  Review,  vol.  i. 


254  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

the  theological  world ;  and  whether  without 
this,  men  like  Canon  Fremantle  would  as  read- 
ily have  come  to  speak  out  the  grand  truth  of 
a  ' '  God  with  us,  God  in  us,  God  making  him- 
self a  home  in  all  the  relations  by  which  love 
and  justice  draw  man  to  man,  and  class  to  class, 
and  nation  to  nation;  a  God  who  is  known  and 
realized  in  the  tenderness  of  fatherly  and  moth- 
erly and  filial  affection,  the  rapture  of  married 
love,  the  steadiness  of  friendship,  the  honesty  of 
trade  relations,  the  loyalty  of  citizenship,  the 
righteousness  of  political  rule,  the  peace  which  is 
destined  to  bind  together  all  mankind.  Where 
these  exist  there  is  God;  where  they  are  not 
He  is  absent. ' ' 

By  the  absolute  certainty  with  which  Evolu- 
tion invests  a  few  such  fundamental  facts  as  these 
of  an  almighty,  beneficent  Being,  eternal,  un- 
changeable, and  immanent  in  the  universe,  and 
the  vividness  with  which  it  shows  him  to  our 
consciousness  as  a  living  actuality,  it  has  done 
more  for  real,  practical  religion  than  could  by 
any  other  means  have  been  accomplished. 
What  we  lose  in  diffuseness  we  gain  in  depth 
of  belief.  In  place  of  the  many  things  offered 
our  faith,  we  are  given  a  few  fundamental  things 
upon  which  to  concentrate  our  soul's  powers. 
Instead  of  a  multitude  of  more  or  less  incon- 
gruous dogmas,  in  trying  to  adapt  our  inner 

6  The  Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life. 


Religion.  255 

and  outer  relations  to  which  too  much  of  our 
time  and  energy  would  have  to  be  expended, 
and  much  of  it  in  vain,  we  have  a  few  simple 
facts  as  the  alone  essential  ones  with  which  our 
life  has  to  be  brought  into  harmony. 

And  we  are  enabled  to  do  this  the  more  readily 
by  the  further  knowledge  we  are  given  of  the 
mode  of  divine  manifestation,  and  the  manner 
and  kind  of  the  relations  God  sustains  to  the 
world.  The  sublime  order  by  which  "the 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,"  in  which 
"day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto 
night  showeth  knowledge;"  the  order  of  the 
creation,  the  development,  the  government,  the 
salvation  of  the  universe;  the  method  that  is 
in  the  flight  of  the  stellar  flocks  through  space, 
in  the  vibration  of  the  ether  wavelets,  the  cir- 
culation of  the  sap  of  trees  and  blood  of  men; 
the  laws  ruling  the  spiritual  sphere  and  reigning 
in  the  moral  realm ;  all  these  are  shown  to  be 
but  the  divine  Presence  existing  and  operating 
according  to  the  constitution  of  his  eternal  being. 
In  God's  government  there  is  no  room  for  con- 
tingencies, there  is  no  whim,  no  chance,  no 
variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning.  What  the 
Scriptures  ever  sought  to  impress  upon  man, 
that  Evolution  succeeds  in  making  him  viv- 
idly realize.  God  reigns,  not  a  man.  All  things 
consist  according  to  beneficently  inexorable 
law.  Every  cause  has  its  effect ;  and  no  effect 
is  without  cause.  Fire  burns,  always,  every- 


256  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

where,  every  one.  Parallel  lines  never  meet, 
on  earth  nor  in  heaven.  "The  wages  of  sin 
is  death,"  ever,  to  all.  Kepent,  and  you  are 
forgiven.  "Believe  andthoushalt  be  saved." 
We  know  God  only  by  virtue  of  law.  "We 
can  come  to  him  only  according  to  law. 
Ignoring  law  is  ignoring  God  himself.  Trans- 
gressing law  is  opposing  God,  is  destroying 
self. 

Of  what  great  importance  this  knowledge  is 
to  practical  religion  will  at  once  appear.  It 
puts  our  striving  after  union  with  God  on  a 
new  basis,  and  gives  it  a  definite,  intelligible 
direction.  It  does  not  change  indeed  any  of 
the  principles  and  rules  of  life  given  in  the 
Bible;  but  it  helps  to  explain  them,  and  make 
us  understand  why  they  must  be  obeyed. 

Before  showing  this  more  fully,  however, 
one  or  two  points  of  the  clearer  knowledge  of 
human  nature  which  Evolution  emphasizes 
must  be  referred  to.  For  they  are  as  important 
as  the  knowledge  of  the  divine,  and  must  be 
taken  in  connection  with  it.  Upon  the  two 
together  depends  the  view  we  take  of  religion, 
of  what  it  really  consists,  and  how  its  end  is 
to  be  reached. 

The  first  of  these  points  is  the  unity  of  human 
nature.  The  physical  and  the  spritual  parts  of 
man  cannot  be  separated  and  treated  as 
wholly  distinct.  They  are  mutually  depen- 
dent. Neither  of  them  alone  is  man's  self. 


Religion.  257 

His  reason,  feeling,  conscience,  will,  are  affect- 
ed largely  by  his  digestion,  the  kind  and  quan- 
tity of  his  food,  his  home  comforts,  his  par- 
entage, his  companionship,  the  climate,  and  his 
environment  in  general.  At  the  same  time  also 
the  former  react  upon  the  latter.  The  action, 
reaction,  and  interaction  of  all  these  make  up 
his  character,  his  self,  the  man.  This  fact  has 
been  almost  entirely  ignored  in  theology.  And 
consequently  also  the  further  truth,  or  phase 
of  the  same  fact,  that  man  is  not  only  an  indi- 
vidual unit,  independent  of  all  others,  but  is 
a  member  of  an  organic  whole.  He  is  one  of 
many  social  units  that  together  make  up  the 
social  organism.  This  on  the  one  hand  aids, 
and  on  the  other  limits,  his  individual  develop- 
ment. It  cannot  remain  much  below  the  aver- 
age of  the  whole,  nor  can  it  rise  far  above  it. 
This  greatly  enlarges  the  aim  and  scope  of 
religion,  and  healthfully  regulates  its  opera- 
tions ;  making  its  true  end  not  only  the  destruc- 
tion of  sins,  but  of  sin ;  not  only  the  redemp- 
tion of  men,  but  the  salvation  of  man ;  not  only 
the  bringing  of  persons  into  union  with  God, 
but  the  bringing  of  all  human  relations  and 
institutions,  of  all  humanity,  into  correspond- 
ence with  divinity. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  any  of  these  facts 

have   been    discovered    by    Evolution.     They 

have  often  been   pointed  out   by  philosophers 

and  theologians.     But  Evolution  has   brought 

9 


258  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

them  into  the  unity  of  a  system,  and  shown 
them  to  be  the  necessary  outcome  of  funda- 
mental principles  deep  down  in  the  very  nature 
of  universal  being.  It  has  brought  them  into 
co-ordination  with  all  other  facts.  And  if 
those  who  at  the  present  day  are  again  laying 
stress  upon  them  were  not  led  to  do  it  by  the 
conscious  or  unconscious  influence  of  Evolution, 
which  is  so  mightily  modifying  all  human 
thought,  they  at  least  will  gain  additional  power 
to  convince,  if  not  greater  certitude  in  their  own 
minds,  by  finding  them  involved  in  the  very 
principles  of  the  dominant  system  and  tendency 
of  thought  of  the  present  time. 

Bearing  these  truths  with  reference  to  the 
divine  and  the  human  natures  in  mind,  we  are 
now  prepared,  I  think,  to  see  in  what  that 
union  or  correspondence  between  God  and 
man,  which  is  true  religion,  consists,  and  how 
our  striving  for  it  can  alone  succeed. 

Realizing  the  sublime  truth  of  the  immanence 
of  God  not  only  puts  our  consciousness  of  God 
upon  the  most  solid  and  incontrovertible  basis 
of  absolute  certainty,  but  it  frees  our  concep- 
tion of  religion  from  that  wholly  artificial  limi- 
tation that  has  grown  up  around  it,  and  has 
done  as  much  to  hinder  the  religious  progress 
of  the  world  as  all  the  opposition  from  without 
it  has  ever  had  to  encounter.  It  is  the  per- 
nicious notion  that  would  cramp  and  confine 
all  religion  within  the  narrow  bounds  of  eccle- 


Religion.  259 

siastical  organization.  Not  that  our  principles 
do  not  allow  the  usefulness  and  importance  of 
a  thorough  organization  among  believers.  They 
grant  this  most  freely.  Human  nature  requires 
it.  It  is  so  greatly  dependent  upon  its  en- 
vironment that  it  could  not  exist  as  religious 
without  the  strength  that  close  fellowship  with 
others  gives,  the  help  it  derives  from  dogmas 
and  disciplinary  regulations,  the  inspiration 
and  assistance  obtained  from  forms  of  worship, 
seasons  for  instruction,  meditation,  prayer  and 
praise,  and  the  various  hallowed  associations 
afforded  by  the  visible  Church.  But  when,  to 
use  Mr.  Spencer's  words,  "maintenance  of  the 
dogmas  and  forms  of  the  religion  becomes  the 
primary,  all- essential  thing,  and  the  secondary 
thing,  often  sacrificed,  is  the  securing  of  those 
relations  among  men  which  the  spirit  of  reli- 
gion requires, ' ' 7  then  we  protest  against  it.  We 
protest  against  exalting  this  one  means  of  reli- 
gion into  the  chief  if  not  the  sole  end;  against 
the  servant  presuming  to  be  the  master;  against 
ecclesiasticism  taking  the  place  of  religion  itself. 
It  is  this  abuse  that  has  driven  out  of  the 
Church  hundreds  of  the  greatest  and  best  men 
the  world  has  ever  seen ;  just  because  they  are 
so  great.  Their  faith  is  too  large  to  express 
itself  in  her  symbols.  Their  character  too 
many-sided  to  be  adequately  nourished  at  her 

'  The  Study  of  Sociology. 


260  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

meagre  table.  Their  love  too  deep  and  glow- 
ing to  find  sufficient  expression  in  her  few  forms 
and  ritual.  Their  religion  is  too  full  and  com- 
plete. Thank  God,  however,  she  is  not  able  to 
drive  such  out  of  the  true  Church  of  Christ, 
where  men  are  received  for  what  they  are,  not 
only  for  what  they  think,  or  feel,  or  say,  or 
have.  Where  ' '  He  that  doeth  righteousness  is 
righteous."  But  none  the  less  is  it  a  great 
harm  to  real,  vital  religion  to  be  thus  divided 
asunder  by  an  arbitrary  line.  There  is  no 
authority  in  the  language  or  spirit  of  the  Script- 
ures for  any  such  schism  in  the  body  of  Christ, 
any  separation  into  sacred  and  secular  such  as 
men  have  arrogantly  made. 

I  am  convinced  that  this  whole  abuse  comes 
from,  or  at  least  is  maintained  by,  the  narrow 
and  false  view  of  God  that  obtains  in  the  popu- 
lar mind,  however  little  it  be  sanctioned  in  the 
formal  theology  of  the  present.  He  is  not  re- 
cognized as  a  Spirit  suffused  over  all  and  through 
the  world.  But  he  is  localized  somewhere ;  so 
that  one  place  is  nearer  to  him  than  another. 
And  the  Church  is  the  nearest.  He  is  fancied 
to  take  more  interest  in  some  actions  and  rela- 
tions than  in  others.  And  the  relations  of 
church-membership,  and  exercises  of  church 
worship,  are  the  dearest  to  him.  He  must  be 
approached  on  the  knees,  addressed  in  hymns 
and  prayers,  honored  by  special  ceremonies. 
Hence  to  join  the  Church  is  to  "get  religion;" 


Religion.  261 

and  to  attend  public  worship  is  "divine  service." 
All  else  belongs  to  ' '  secular  life. ' '  Thus  re- 
ligion is  made  a  distinct  department  of  life  in 
contrast  with  all  other  departments  like  science, 
or  politics,  art,  education,  or  philosophy;  and 
too  commonly  in  opposition  and  antagonism  to 
these.  Well  has  Canon  Fremantle  in  the  vol- 
ume before  cited,  expressed  the  sentiments  that 
alone  accord  with  the  principles  of  Evolution, 
and  are  being  more  and  more  deeply  felt  by 
thoughtful  Christians:  "The  supposed  antag- 
onism between  religion  and  the  secular  life  is 
not  one  which  those  who  believe  in  God  ought 
to  recognize.  It  is  a  form  of  dualism,  with  this 
difference — that  the  old  dualism  was  of  good 
and  evil,  this  of  two  forms  of  good.  But  good- 
ness is  all  one,  and  it  is  all  divine  and  Christian. 
Why  should  we  separate  from  each  other  the 
various  manifestations  of  the  same  spirit?  JSTo 
believer  in  God  can  really  doubt  that  every 
pure  and  unselfish  development  of  human  en- 
ergy is  consonant  with  the  will  and  purpose  of 
God;  nor  that  humanity  and  the  world  are 
component  parts  of  one  great  Unity ;  nor  that 
the  elevation  of  humanity  to  its  noblest  and  best 
estate  must  be  the  aim  of  every  man  who  lives 
in  earnest.  And  if  there  are  those,"  he  con- 
tinues, "who  think  that  religion  is  the  enemy 
of  science  or  art  or  the  political  life,  or  of  the 
free  exercise  of  criticism,  or  of  political  equality, 
or  of  progress,  we  must  endeavor  to  undeceive 


262  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

them,  just  as  we  must  undeceive  religious  men 
who  imagine  that  any  of  these  tendencies  are 
in  themselves  anti-religious." 

Holding  to  the  truth  of  the  immanence  of 
God,  we  cannot  degrade  religion  into  merely 
one  of  many  rival  occupations  or  departments 
of  life.  There  is  no  such  dualism  as  sacred  and 
secular.  All  things  are  sacred  in  which  the 
divine  manifests  itself  and  operates.  Eeligion 
is  the  tendency  to  bring  all  things  into  con- 
formity and  perfect  harmony  with  the  all-pres- 
ent Spirit  of  God.  It  exists  in  all  literature  that 
aims  to  acquaint  itself  with  and  to  express  "the 
best  which  has  been  thought  and  said  in  the 
world."  It  moves  art  to  study  and  depict  all 
that  is  most  beautiful,  that  it 

"  might  touch  the  hearts  of  rnen, 
And  bring  them  back  to  heaven  again. ' ' 

It  strives  in  politics  to  put  the  crown  on  right- 
eousness,  and  give  to  justice  the  scepter  where- 
with to  govern  men.  With  commerce  it  sails 
o'er  the  seas  to  strengthen  the  brotherhood  of 
the  race.  To  science  it  gives  the  right  to  say, 

"My  Father's  works 

Tis  mine  to  render  plain  to  human  thought. 
I  war  with  Darkness,  and  I  fight  with  Lies, 
I  free  the  slave  that  Ignorance  enthralls; 
I  ferret  hoar  Delusion  from  his  cave; 
I  lift  the  veil  from  Superstition's  eyes; 
I  point  the  way  to  Truth  wherever  hid." 8 

8  Venable— A  Vision  of  Science. 


Religion.  263 

With  God  everywhere  near  in  real,  living  pres- 
ence, religion  is  everywhere  the  reaching  forth 
to  touch  him,  to  bring  all  departments  of  life 
into  the  divine  mould,  all  human  operations  into 
harmony  with  the  divine  activity.  How  can 
there  be  any  opposition  between  them  ?  Or  what 
right  has  one  to  say,  I  have  religion;  ye  have 
not  ?  ' '  For  the  body  is  not  one  member,  but 

many And  the  eye  cannot  say  unto 

the  hand,  I  have  no  need  of  thee :  nor  again, 
the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no  need  of  you. 
Nay,  much  more,  those  members  of  the  body, 
which  seem  to  be  more  feeble,  are  necessary." 

The  great  need  of  the  world  to-day  is  to  real- 
ize the  universal  immanence  of  God  as  Euler, 
Guide,  Saviour;  of  him  who  declared,  "Lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world;"  not  to  heed  the  cry  Lo,  here!  or  Lo, 
there,  is  Christ !  but  to  accept  the  fact  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  the  heart.  When 
I  see  how  much  of  the  means  of  the  Church 
is  expended  on  the  mere  maintenance  of  eccle- 
siastical government,  its  ministry  and  ma- 
chinery, the  building  and  ornamentation  of  its 
houses  of  worship;  how  inordinately  large  a 
proportion  of  its  time  and  energy  is  given  to 
such  purely  subjective  exercises  as  are  demanded 
by  its  public  services,  its  preaching,  supplica- 
tions, and  adoration,  to  say  nothing  of  its  con- 
ferences, synods,  and  controversies,  compared 
with  its  activity  in  more  practical,  objective 


264  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

directions;  I  cannot  but  confess  that  there  is 
almost  more  religion  in  the  so-called  secular 
world  than  in  the  Church.  Look  at  the  God- 
ward  tendency,  the  religious  agencies,  that  are 
manifesting  themselves  in  the  application  of 
science  to  the  bodily,  intellectual,  and  moral 
elevation  of  mankind;  the  improvement  of 
men's  health,  their  food,  their  clothing,  their 
dwellings,  the  facilities  of  intercourse  between 
them,  the  cure  of  their  ailments,  the  increase 
of  their  usefulness  and  happiness,  and  the  re- 
moval of  those  physical  hinderances  at  least  that 
stand  in  the  way  of  their  attaining  to  a  perfect 
manhood,  to  eternal  life !  Look  at  the  homes 
and  hospitals  and  asylums  "the  world"  is  build- 
ing ;  at  the  interest  politics  are  manifesting  in 
the  cause  of  temperance,  chastity,  official  purity, 
education,  and  civilization!  Notice  the  innu- 
merable "secular"  organizations  for  humani- 
tarian purposes;  the  work  literature  is  doing, 
and  art,  for  the  highest  spiritual  enlightenment, 
and  ethical  as  well  as  aesthetical  culture  of  man ! 
True  religion  is  mightily  stirring  and  strenu- 
ously laboring  in  all  these  various  directions; 
and  certainly  if  the  Church  do  not  soon  wake 
up  to  an  adequate  sense  of  her  great  privilege, 
facilities,  and  duty,  she  will  be  left  in  the  rear 
instead  of  being  the  leader  of  the  universal  God- 
ward  movement. 

I  am  jealous  for  the  Church.     I  believe  that 
she  can  and  ought  to  be  at  the  very  head  of  all 


Religion.  265 

religious  agencies.  Therefore  I  am  anxious 
that  she  should  speedily  enlarge  her  borders, 
pull  down  the  walls  of  partition  that  now  so 
wrongfully  separate  her  from  the  multitude  of 
other  religious  forces  that  are  everywhere  work- 
ing so  mightily,  and  embrace  and  heartily  join 
hands  with  righteousness,  goodness,  and  truth 
wherever  found.  She  was  never  meant  to  be 
confined  to  the  few  partial  phases  of  religious 
activity  she  now  displays;  never  designed  to 
be  a  mere  conserver  of  dogma  and  forms  of 
worship  "abstracted  from  the  common  life  of 
men. "  ' '  Its  power  is  not  that  of  a  distant  God 
who  must  be  approached  by  special  ceremonies, 
by  special  modes  of  life  and  thought,  by  shap- 
ing humanity  into  some  peculiar  attitude,  but 
the  power  of  a  present  God.  The  title  of  its 
Founder  is  Immanuel. 9 

If  this  is  once  fully  realized,  I  believe  that 
the  "Church  of  the  Future,"  so  eloquently 
pictured  by  Dr.  "Washington  Gladden,  in  one 
of  his  sermons,  will  become  an  actual  fact. 
"Large  and  wise  enterprises  for  the  welfare  of 
men  will  be  set  on  foot,  many  of  the  instru- 
mentalities now  in  use  will  continue  to  be  em- 
ployed, under  modified  forms,  and  many  new 
ones  will  be  devised.  It  will  be  understood 
that  the  law  of  the  Church  is  simply  this,  'Let 
us  do  good  to  all  men  as  we  have  opportunity. ' 

9  Fremantle — Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life. 


266  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

No  means  of  making  men  better  will  be  counted 
unlawful:  everything  that  helps  to  lift  them 
out  of  misery  and  bring  them  near  to  God  will 

be  received  with  thanksgiving In 

short,  the  Church  of  the  Future,  loyal  to  its 
great  Head,  and  leaning  on  his  counsel  and  his 
might,  will  go  out  into  the  world  and  take 
possession  of  it,  in  his  name.  Wherever  there 
are  wrongs  it  will  strive  to  right  them ;  wher- 
ever there  are  needs  it  will  work  to  supply  them ; 
wherever  there  are  sorrows  it  will  love  to  com- 
fort them ;  wherever  there  are  any  whom  Christ 
would  have  helped,  it  will  go  to  them  and 
carry  the  gifts  he  came  to  bring."  Read  also 
what  Dr.  Phillips  Brooks  has  recently  spoken, 
when  in  addressing  the  Harvard  Divinity  School 
he  said,  "The  great  mass  of  men  do  not  to-day 
belong  in  associated  relations  with  the  Christian 
Church.  What  does  that  mean?  First,  that 
the  Christian  Church  has  not  made  itself  broad 
enough  to  make  earnest  and  true  men  recognize 
the  ideal  of  their  humanity  in  it ;  that  it  has 
been  too  special,  too  fantastic.  Secondly,  that 
it  has  a  great  work  before  it  so  to  declare  its 
human  application  that  it  shall  commend  itself 
to  every  man  who  really  is  in  earnest  in  his 
thought,  and  earnest  in  his  deed.  The  Church 
seems  to  me  to  have  that  great  function  before 
it,  and  never  to  have  had  the  possibility  for  the 
fulfillment  of  that  duty  so  large  and  open  before 
it,  in  all  the  ages  of  its  existence  as  to-day." 


Religion.  267 

The  very  fact  that  there  are  men  within  it  who 
can  speak  such  words,  and  do  speak  them,  is  to 
me  a  most  significant  and  helpful  sign. 

While  the  Church  that  would  have  the  sym- 
pathy and  co-operation  of  those  who  are  influ- 
enced by  the  principles  and  modes  of  thought 
of  Evolution  must  do  all  this,  while  she  dare 
not  refuse  to  do  it  if  she  would  keep  up  with 
the  truer  interpretation  of  Scripture  that  is  ever 
being  more  widely  accepted,  she  will  not  by 
any  means  have  to  pay  less  attention  to  what 
are  called  the  "means  of  grace."  She  will, 
however,  if  these  are  to  serve  their  proper  pur- 
pose, be  obliged  to  rid  the  minds  of  the  people 
more  thoroughly  of  many  of  the  heathen  notions 
with  which  they  regard  and  use  them.  This 
will  be  possible  if  the  real  all-presence  of  God 
is  once  fully  appreciated.  Then  his  immuta- 
bility will  be  properly  understood ;  and  it  will 
be  seen  that  his  spiritual  laws  as  his  physical 
laws,  are  not  mere  commands  or  decrees  im- 
posed by  him  for  the  regulation  of  the  world, 
but  simply  the  infinitely  varied  modes  of  his 
being.  To  change  the  slightest  detail  of  any 
one  of  them  Avould  be  nothing  less  than  to 
changefthe  whole  constitution  and  being  of  God 
himself.  This  is  unthinkable,  utterly  and  ab- 
solutely impossible;  and  nowhere  more  posi- 
tively declared  such  than  in  the  Bible,  though 
it  was  left  to  Evolution  to  explain  the  fact,  to 
demonstrate  and  anew  insist  upon  it. 


268  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Now  it  will  not  be  denied,  by  any  one  ac- 
quainted with  popular  religious  thought,  that  in 
nearly  all  current  worship  this  impossibility  is 
entirely  ignored,  and  its  opposite  taken  for 
granted.  The  heathen  idea  that  worship  is 
intended  to  change  the  attitude  of  God  toward 
the  worshipper  is  still  all  too  prevalent.  The 
necessity  of  correspondence  between  the  human 
and  the  divine  is  indeed  felt ;  but  it  is  sought 
to  be  effected  by  bringing  God  into  conformity 
with  man !  The  bulk  of  the  devotees  in  our 
churches,  taking  literally  such  expressions  as 
"pleasing,  propitiating,  glorifying  God,"  ac- 
tually imagine  that  their  songs  of  praise — es- 
pecially if  artistically  rendered  by  a  professional 
choir ! — cause  pleasurable  sensations  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Deity,  in  return  for  which  they 
will  be  made  the  recipients  of  special  favors 
from  him.  They  fancy  that  their  eloquent 
petitions, — whether  intoned  by  a  deep  sonorous 
voice  that  brings  out  the  rhythmical  beauty  of 
a  symmetrical  litany,  or  shouted  in  hoarse  tones 
from  the  stentorian  throat  of  a  class -leader, — 
will  touch  the  feelings  of  God,  and  move  him 
to  do  what  otherwise  he  would  not  have  done, 
— which  in  one  sense  is  not  without  truth,  but 
not  in  their  sense.  They  believe  that  their 
presence  in  the  church  edifice, — whether  it  be 
a  Gothic  pile  of  white  marble,  or  a  cabin  of 
rough-hewn  logs, — will  change  God's  senti- 
ments, thoughts,  and  conduct  towards  them. 


Religion.  269 

With  this  in  view  they  engage  in  these  devo- 
tions. They  are  thoroughly  sincere,  the  most 
of  them.  They  really  love  their  idea  of  God, 
therefore  they  wish  to  please  him  and  to  con- 
tribute to  his  glory.  They  feel  their  depend- 
ence upon  him  deeply,  hence  their  efforts  to 
propitiate  and  conciliate  him.  But  they  know 
him  so  imperfectly  that  they  only  succeed  in 
degrading  him,  and  in  causing  offence  and  dis- 
gust to  those  more  spiritually  minded. 

The  comparative  emptiness  of  our  churches  is 
not  a  sign  of  indifference  to  religion;  but  a 
protest  of  the  reverent  intelligence  of  men 
against  its  abuse  and  misapplication.  It  is  the 
modern  echo  of  Samuel's  rebuke,  "Behold,  to 
obey  is  better  than  sacrifice;''  the  reiteration 
of  Isaiah's  inspiration,  "Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations :  incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me ; 
the  new  moons  and  sabbaths,  the  calling  of 

assemblieSj  I  cannot  away  with 

Wash  you,  make  you  clean ;  cease  to  do  evil ; 
learn  to  do  well;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the 
oppressed;  judge  the  fatherless;  plead  for  the 
widow;"  the  repetition  of  Paul's  sentiments  on 
Mars'  Hill,  "The  God  who  made  the  world 
and  all  things  therein,  he  that  is  Master  of 
heaven  and  of  earth  not  in  hand-made  temples 
dwells,  neither  by  hands  of  men  is  served,  as 
though  he  needed  anything ;  he  that  gives  to 
all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things. ' '  As  such 
it  is  indeed  being  recognized  by  the  most  truly 


270  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

religious  and  spiritual  men  of  our  times,  by 
men  like  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  for  instance,  who 
declares  that ' '  Agnosticism  is  a  protest  against 
idolatry;  and  a  true  protest;"  and  who  thus 
paraphrases  Paul's  words  to  apply  to  our  own 
times:  "Away  with  your  conceptions  and  ideas 
of  God,  which  are  but  subtle  idols;  away  with 
your  notion  that  your  service  counts  for  aught ; 
as  though  he  needed  anything.  Away  with 
your  narrow  and  narrowing  thought  that  he 
dwells  in  hand -made  temples,  and  that  those 
only  seek  him  who  go  to  church  and  accept  the 
preacher's  pictures  as  a  photographic  like- 
ness."10 

True  worship  must  have  just  the  opposite 
basis  from  that  described,  and  then  will  both 
f  uliill  its  proper  purpose,  and  not  repel  so  many 
of  the  best  men  as  it  does  now.  It  is  simply 
one  of  many  means  to  further  religion,  to  help 
man  to  conform  himself  to  God.  As  such  it  is 
necessary,  and  demanded  as  indispensable  on 
the  principles  of  Evolution  itself.  It  is  a 
medium  of  expression  and  means  of  strengthen- 
ing the  religious  sentiments.  It  is  a  bond  of 
spiritual  union,  helping  to  draw  believers  more 
closely  together.  It  supplies  motive-power,  in- 
struction, and  guidance  to  enable  men  the  better 
to  fulfill  the  end  of  religion.  In  no  other  way 
now  known,  or  practicable,  than  by  the  ser- 

10  The  Christian  Union. 


Religion.  271 

mon,  the  exposition  and  application  of  the 
Scriptures,  would  men  come  as  thoroughly  to 
understand  and  as  often  to  be  reminded  of 
those  eternal  principles  upon  which  their  lives 
must  be  built,  and  be  instructed  in  the  rules  for 
the  practical  guidance  of  life,  how  they  must 
live,  what  they  must  do,  to  come  into  union 
with  God ;  and  in  no  other  would  they  be  as 
strongly  moved  to  do  it,  would  their  motives 
be  so  enkindled,  and  their  desire  and  longing 
for  union  with  the  divine  be  so  freshened, 
strengthened,  and  perpetuated.  No,  the  ser- 
mon,— the  sermon  as  it  should  be  perhaps  rather 
than  the  sermon  as  it  is, — can  never  be  abol- 
ished, however  its  name  and  form  may  be 
changed. 

And  just  as  little  the  united  praise  and  prayer 
which  cluster  around  it.  The  divine  power 
that  swells  through  the  strains  of  truly  devo- 
tional music  is  not  only  a  grand  means  of  giving 
expression  to  sentiments  of  trust  and  hope  and 
adoration ;  but  it  reacts  in  filling  the  heart  with 
firmer  trust,  with  larger  hope,  with  more  ar- 
dent praise.  It  purifies  and  elevates  the  soul. 
It  generates  new  motives  and  working  power. 
The  united  exercise  of  prayer  is  an  inspiration 
in  itself.  While  expressing  man's  wants  and 
sorrows  and  holiest  aspirations  it  supplies  the 
divine  force  for  their  satisfaction.  It  makes 
definite  the  yearnings  of  the  heart ;  submissive 
and  obedient  the  will ;  peaceful  and  strong  the 


272  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

whole  being.  What  the  deep-sighted  Hindoo 
Mozoomdar  said  of  the  Praying  Christ,  is  true 
of  every  Christian  who  rightly  prays.  "The 
attitude  of  uplooking  faith  is  the  chief  medium 
through  which  the  mind  of  God  can  be  poured 
into  the  devotee's  mind.  By  the  vision  of  in- 
stinctive trust,  the  praying  Jesus  first  beheld 
what  was  in  the  purpose  of  the  Father,  and 
then  prayed  for  the  fulfillment  of  that  purpose. " 
Thus  "The  unity  of  will  with  will,  deepened 
by  faith,  love,  and  obedience,  made  his  prayers 
natural  and  incessant.  Such  prayer  made  his 
activity  instantaneous,  and  that  activity  was 
crowned  with  the  miracles  of  success."11 
Surely  such  devotion  is  never  to  be  surrendered. 
As  far  as  these  and  all  other  forms  of  wor- 
ship are  engaged  in  with  a  clear  perception  of 
their  true  relation  and  efiicacy  to  religion,  they 
are  useful  and  even  essential.  They  with  the 
whole  system  of  ecclesiasticism  belong  to  the 
environment  upon  which  man  depends,  in  his 
present  stage  of  development,  as  a  religious 
being ; — upon  which  he  depends  to  bring  him- 
self into  full  correspondence  and  harmony  with 
that  Being  who  is  perfect  Love,  an  ever-present 
Love,  manif  esting  himself  in  the  beneficence  of 
that  wondrous  order  which  we  call  law ;  which, 
if  we  could  change,  could  only  become  less 
perfectly  beneficent;  which,  it  we  Avould  fully 

»  The  Oriental  Christ. 


Religion.  273 

enjoy,  we  need  only  bring  ourselves  into  full 
conformity  with.  It  is  not  conditioned  for  its 
existence  or  operation  by  aught  that  we  can 
do.  But  we  are  for  our  enjoyment  of  it,  for 
our  whole  spiritual  life,  dependent  upon  the 
degree  of  our  inner  and  outer  adjustment  to  it. 
"Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  he  loved  us;"  and  "we  love  him  because 
first  he  loved  us." 

If  religion,  further,  is  the  bringing  of  man 
into  correspondence  with  the  divine,  of  the 
whole  man,  all  the  principles  of  his  being  and 
activities  of  his  life,  then  surely  can  it  not  be 
regarded,  as  it  is  by  many,  as  a  mere  acceptance 
of  a  system  of  doctrines ;  nor  yet,  as  by  others, 
as  nothing  more  than  a  matter  of  the  sentiments 
and  emotions.  As  the  true  conception  of  God 
removes  the  objective  limitations  ecclesiasticism 
would  impose,  so  does  the  view  Evolution  gives 
of  man's  being  and  nature  deny  these  subjective 
limitations.  Eeligion  cannot  be  relegated  to 
any  one  faculty  or  set  of  faculties,  nor  for  that 
matter  to  any  other  part  only  of  man.  Man 
is  indeed  essentially  one ;  but  he  has  many  sides, 
physical,  intellectual,  emotional,  moral.  Un- 
less all  these  sides  are  fitted  to  the  divine  order 
of  being,  his  religion  will  be  but  partial  and 
imperfect.  Only  the  co-ordination  of  all  these 
with  the  divine  and  with  one  another,  can 
make  the  man's  self  religious.  This  depends 
equally  upon  all. 


274  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Yet  there  are  those  who  would  make  it  de- 
pend wholly  upon  the  intellectual  faculties 
alone.  He  who  can  most  positively  subscribe 
to  his  creed,  is  most  skillful  in  defending  it  by 
argument  and  Scripture  quotations,  and  most 
zealous  in  guarding  it  against  innovation  and 
"new  ideas,"  he  is  the  most  religious  man. 
Righteousness  with  them  is  to  believe  the  right 
doctrine;  sin,  to  be  unable  or  unwilling  to 
believe  what  this  or  that  authority  has  declared 
to  be  the  correct  thing.  So  that  I  know  men 
the  most  rigidly  orthodox  who  are  at  the  same 
time  the  most  uncharitable,  unforgiving,  un- 
hopeful, un-Christ]ike  and  unreligious  within 
my  acquaintance.  Well  does  Dr.  Smyth  pro- 
test against  such  mere  dogmatists,  in  the  paper 
from  which  I  have  already  quoted,  that ' '  Chris- 
tianity is  not  primarily  a  system  of  doctrines 
arranged  in  rational  order,  but  a  system  of 
beings  in  right  relation  to  God  and  in  harmony 
with  each  other."  Indeed  so  strong  is  the 
reaction  against  mere  intellectualism  in  religion 
showing  itself,  especially  in  the  so-called  "New 
Theology,"  that  I  am  in  hopes  it  will  soon  have 
passed  away  entirely. 

Perhaps  there  is  danger  that  this  very  reac- 
tion may  strengthen  the  equally  partial  and 
crippling  view,  that  obtains  so  largely  in  the 
popular  conception  and  practice,  and  which 
would  make  the  feelings  the  sole  legitimate  and 
only  needed  sphere  of  religion.  Made  current  in 


Religion.  275 

theology  chiefly  through  the  perversion  of 
Schleiermacher's  teachings,  it  was  perhaps  but 
the  natural  revulsion  against  the  cold  and  bar- 
ren rationalism  that  too  long  had  tyrannized 
the  Christian  world.  It  was  given  strength  by 
the  Scottish  school  of  philosophy,  which  through 
Brown,  Hamilton,  Mansel,  and  their  class,  in- 
sisted on  a  special  faith-faculty,  spoke  only  of 
religious  sentiments,  and  practically  revived  the 
nonsense  of  Tertullian's  famous  ' '  Cerium  est 
quia  impossibile  est.  • '  From  this  school  Herbert 
Spencer  and  many  of  his  followers  adopted  the 
notion,  along  with  the  "Law  of  the  Uncondi- 
tioned." So  that  Evolution  has  come  to  be 
blamed  for  holding  that  the  reason  can  have 
no  part  in  religion  whatever  which  is  the  prov- 
ince of  the  sensibilities  alone. 

Whether  this  was  its  foundation  or  not,  cer- 
tain it  is  that  in  our  popular  religion  the  feel- 
ings are  well-nigh  the  only  part  of  the  mind 
that  is  brought  into  play.  Go  into  almost  any 
church  of  a  Sunday  and  you  will  at  once  see 
how  true  this  is.  Everything  there,  from  the 
architecture  to  the  dress  of  the  clergy,  includ- 
ing the  sermon  itself,  appeals  to  your  sym- 
pathy, your  ambition,  your  fear,  sorrow,  joy, 
admiration,  affection;  but  to  how  little  else! 
What  is  there  provided  for  the  reason,  the 
thinking  powers,  the  conscience,  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  life  and  formation  of  the  whole 
character?  It  is  simply  a  fact  that  of  a  very 


276  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

large  part  of  the  current  Christianity  of  to-day 
it  may  be  said  as  truly  as  it  has  been  of  the 
religion  of  the  old  Puranas,  that  "Never 
was  there  a  more  complete  example  of  piety 
divorced  from  morality  than  in  these  theories. ' ' 
Abundant  and  sad  experience  with  these  emo- 
tional religionists  would  alone  be  enough  to 
make  us  heartily  agree  with  Dr.  George  Harris, 
when  he  said  in  his  notable  Inaugural  Address 
at  Andover,  that  "It  is  of  the  last  importance 
that  we  do  not  relinquish  or  think  slightingly 
of  the  office  of  reason  in  the  recognition  of  re- 
ligious truth.  To  maintain  that  doctrine  is  re- 
ceived by  feeling  or  by  a  faith -faculty,  and 
not  primarily  by  reason,  is  to  surrender  to  the 

enemy  without  discretion In  order 

to  assert  the  right  use  of  f eeling  and  faith  we 
are  not  required  to  discredit  reason.  Indeed 
faith  is  the  highest  exercise  of  reason,  and  feel- 
ing glows  by  gazing  on  the  object  which  reason 
apprehends. ' ' 

The  truth  is  that  reason  and  the  feelings  are 
alike  concerned,  as  being  two  sides  of  human 
nature,  equally  important  in  the  moulding  of 
the  man  and  in  the  expression  of  his  self.  They 
are  two  of  the  main  avenues  through  which  the 
divine  Love  impresses  itself  on  us  when  radiated 
through  Christ,  helping  to  generate  the  new 
principle  of  life  within  us,  to  start  a  new  process 
of  adjustments  and  adaptations  of  inner  and 
outer  relations,  and  thus  to  effect  the  formation 


Religion.  27  7 

of  a  new  character,  a  new  creature,  responsive 
to  every  manifestation  of  God  within  and  with- 
out, obedient  to  every  breath  of  the  Spirit,  every 
throb  of  the  divine  Being,  living  in  unison  with 
God's  life,  freed  from  the  forces  of  sin  and  of 
death,  secure  in  the  Eternal  Life. 

But  neither  of  the  two  alone,  nor  both  the 
reason  and  the  feelings  together,  are  the  only 
root-channels  of  this  divine  communion,  as 
they  are  not  the  only  roots  of  the  character- 
trunk  ;  they  are  only  the  conscious  ones.  But 
the  unconscious  are  more  numerous,  and,  in  their 
aggregate  at  least,  equally  strong  and  impor- 
tant. This  is  the  truth,  of  vast  practical  import, 
that  the  world  must  yet  learn  and  use  to  a  far 
fuller  extent  than  it  has  thus  far  done,  if  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  are  ever  to  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

Its  neglect  is  the  fruitful  source  of  much  of 
the  deplorable  inconsistency  among  believers, 
which  gives  their  foes  so  great  offence  and  fre- 
quent occasion  for  just  reproach.  It  explains 
why  "there  is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one." 
For  while  this  one  may  have  one,  two,  or  half 
a  dozen  of  the  roots  of  his  being  connected  with 
God,  this  connection  may  be  lacking  entirely, 
or  be  very  imperfect,  with  respect  to  the  others. 
He  may  be  thoroughly  orthodox,  but  wholly 
unloving.  Or  his  emotional  nature  may  be  very 
fully  conformed  with  the  divine  goodness,  while 
intellectually  he  is  decidedly  heterodox.  Or 


278  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

both  intellectually  and  sentimentally  he  may 
be  out  of  the  divine  harmony,  but  by  inheritance 
and  training  have  been  brought  into  unconscious 
correspondence  with  God  so  far  as  the  practical 
side  of  his  character  is  concerned ;  he  will  be 
by  nature  a  "moral  man."  None  of  these  will 
be  consistent  Christians, — as  who  of  us  is?  Each 
one  of  them  will  be  only  partially  religious. 
But  has  any  one  of  them  a  right  to  say  to  the 
others,  You  are  not  Christians?  Dare  the  or- 
thodox charge  the  emotional  one  with  impiety? 
Or  either  accuse  him  who  is  merely  ' '  good  by 
nature"  with  ungodliness?  "Who  shall  presume 
to  say  which  of  them  is  most  perfectly  religious, 
seeing  that  the  religion  of  each  is  defective? 
Let  none  venture  it,  lest  he  hear  the  merited 
rebuke  of  the  alone  Perfect  One,  ' '  Thou  hypo- 
crite, first  cast  out  the  beam  out  of  thine  own 
eye ;  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out 
the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye. ' ' 

Nor  is  this  only  a  rebuke.  It  indicates  also 
the  true  method  of  religious  culture  in  so  far. 
The  too  prevalent  method  is  to  labor  with  zeal 
in  discovering  and  correcting  the  defects  of 
others,  and  hi  trying  to  convince  them  of  our 
excellences  and  to  secure  their  adoption.  Once 
in  a  while  we  succeed,  and  then  straightway 
imagine  we  are  converting  the  world!  The 
"more  excellent  way"  is  for  us  to  search  out 
the  good  that  is  in  others,  cheerfully  to  ac- 
knowledge and  gladly  to  adopt  it,  complement- 


Religion.  279 

ing  therewith  our  own.  Such  we  are  shown, 
in  the  article  before  quoted,  by  Dr.  Lyman 
Abbott,  than  whom  none  is  more  competent  to 
speak  on  the  subject,  was  the  method  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Apostles,  and  such  would  be  his 
way  were  he  living  to-day.  "He  would  not 
ransack  the  writings  of  Huxley,  and  Tyndall, 
and  Spencer  to  prove  them  atheists.  He  would 
ransack  them  for  a  different  purpose.  He  would 
try  not  to  make  the  worst,  but  the  best  out  of 
them.  He  who  quoted,  not  Lucretius  but  Ara- 
tus  and  Cleanthes,  would  find  evidences  of 
theism,  not  of  atheism,  in  modern  philosophy 
and  modern  science.  He  would  not  refuse  to 
welcome  Mozoomdar  because  he  was  not  an 
orthodox  Trinitarian ;  he  would  look  in  Matthew 
Arnold  not  for  sentences  against  inspiration,  but 
for  sentences  witnessing  to  a  living  God;  he 
would  cite  the  last  page  of  Huxley's  monograph 
on  Hume  as  a  testimony — in  some  sense,  an 
unconscious  testimony — to  the  trustworthiness 
of  spiritual  perception ;  he  would  find  in  Her- 
bert Spencer's  favorite  phrase,  the  Unknown 
and  the  Unknowable,  unintentional  witness  of 
consciousness  to  the  Infinite  One,  in  whom  we 
all  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  and  whom, 
therefore,  we  all  recognize  in  spite  of  ourselves. 
He  would  cull  even  from  Robert  Ingersoll,  not 
his  worst  blasphemies,  but  his  reluctant  testi- 
monies to  the  Divine  in  man  and  about  man." 
This  the  wisest  method  of  charity  would  not 


280  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

only  enrich  ourselves,  but  would  do  more  than 
by  any  other  can  be  done  to  perfect  the  religion 
of  others. 

It  would  bring  to  bear  upon  them  the  pow- 
erful force  of  example.  Because  we  would 
show  ourselves  first  willing  frankly  to  examine 
their  excellences,  they  would  be  willing  to  do 
the  same  to  ours.  This  alone  would  be  great 
gain.  If  we  could  only  get  the  thoughtful  at- 
tention of  honest  and  pure  characters,  we  could, 
leave  the  rest  to  the  convincing  power  of  the 
truth  itself. 

"  Truth  needs  no  champions:  in  the  infinite  deep 
Of  everlasting  Soul  her  strength  abides." 

If  there  is  truth  in  our  religion,  the  true  soul 
will  see  it,  be  drawn  to  it,  absorb  it.  The  chief 
difficulty  is  to  get  men's  attention,  to  get  them 
earnestly  to  examine  it.  But  I  believe  this  diffi- 
culty would  vanish  if  we  ourselves  would  first 
set  the  example  of  ingenuousness  towards  them. 
Certainly  much  sooner  than  by  our  constantly 
looking  upon  them  with  suspicion  and  even 
supercilious  pride.  It  is  neglect  of  the  Saviour's 
injunction  that  has  hindered  the  progress  of  the 
world  as  much  as  anything  else.  Not  the  stub- 
bornness of  the  world  any  more  than  the  stub- 
bornness of  Christians  has  set  the  two  classes 
against  each  other,  and  filled  the  earth  with 
sounds  of  crimination  and  recrimination,  con- 
demnation and  defiance,  instead  of  enthroning 


Religion.  281 

the  Prince  of  Peace  over  all,  and  bringing 
everywhere  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to- 
wards men. 

Immense  as  would  be  the  gain  if  by  the 
method  of  charity  all  good  men  and  true  would 
thus  join  hearts  and  hands,  and  become  laborers 
together  with  God,  it  would  be  but  an  inci- 
dental blessing  accruing  from  the  recognition  of 
the  truth  of  the  many-sided  unity  of  man,  which 
Evolution  has  anew  emphasized,  and  of  its  sig- 
nificance to  religion.  Let  Christians  grasp  it 
firmly  and  the  whole  armory  of  the  universe  is 
thrown  open  to  them,  with  all  its  infinite  vari- 
ety of  weapons  and  implements.  "Whatever 
goes  to  the  forming  of  a  man  is  given  into  their 
hands,  so  to  use  as  to  form  him  in  the  image  of 
God.  How  few  and  puny  now  appear  the 
agencies  which  are  employed  in  this  glorious 
work !  No  wonder  the  progress  has  been  so 
slow,  and  the  results  so  meager  and  unsatisfac- 
tory! We  have  tried  preaching  our  sermons 
and  saying  our  prayers  in  a  hundred  thousand 
churches  in  our  land;  but  it  has  not  kept  a 
million  dram-shops  and  gambling  hells  and 
bawdy  houses  from  building  against  their  very 
walls.  We  have  spent  four  million  dollars  in 
erecting  sumptuous  houses  of  worship ;  but  they 
do  not  bring  shelter  and  food  to  the  thousands 
of  freezing  and  starving  ones  at  their  doors.  We 
have  sought  to  win  heathendom  for  Christ 
through  the  reason  and  the  feelings  alone,  and 


282  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

have  succeeded  in  gaining  the  ears  of  scarcely 
two  millions  of  pagans,  while  more  than  ten 
hundred  millions  have  not  been  reached.  In 
ten  years  we  have  expended  perhaps  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  money  in  sending  preachers  and 
teachers,  tracts  and  hymn-books  and  Bibles  into 
our  Home  Mission  field  to  win  the  land  for 
righteousness;  but  to-day  intemperance  every 
year  sends  nine  hundred  million  dollars  on  its 
mission  of  death,  and  gleefully  points  to  the 
hundred  thousand  graves  it  annually  digs  for 
its  victims.  In  spite  of  all  we  have  done,  Mor- 
monism  is  still  as  united  and  defiant  as  ever 
before;  its  ally,  the  "social  evil"  in  our  midst, 
leers  upon  us  more  boldly ;  political  corruption 
is  more  strongly  entrenched ;  unclean  literature 
grows  more  insinuating,  more  artistic  and 
dangerous;  and  pauperism  keeps  on  breeding 
crime  and  misery  to  a  more  alarming  extent 
than  ever  in  the  past. 

The  very  magnitude  of  these  evils,  the  very 
intricacy  of  these  complex  social  problems,  that 
press  so  menacingly  upon  us  for  solution,  is 
forcing  the  truth  upon  us  that,  if  Christianity 
is  ever  successfully  to  meet  them,  it  must  be  in 
other  ways,  by  more  and  mightier  agencies, 
besides  the  few  limited  ones  it  thus  far  has  em- 
ployed. It  must  take  to  heart  more  fully  the 
teaching  of  Paul,  that  in  this  work  "there  are 
diversities  of  gifts  .  .  .  and  there  are  dif- 
ferences of  administrations  and  there 


Religion.  283 

are  diversities  of  operations ;  but  it  is  the  same 
God  which  worketh  all  in  all. ' ' 

Who  ever  heard  of  a  fortress  being  taken  by 
a  mere  succession  of  cavalry  charges, — and  that 
by  platoons?  It  is  what  Christianity  is  trying 
to  do.  It  charges  straight  against  the  citadels 
of  evil,  armed  only  with  the  sword  of  the  spirit ; 
charges  in  open  daylight,  in  full  uniform,  after 
duly  notifying  the  enemy  that  it  is  coming! 
The  results  show  that  we  have  tried  these  un- 
wise tactics  long  enough.  Our  work  has  been 
altogether  one-sided  and  only  superficial.  For- 
getful of  the  admonition  that  "that  was  not 
first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  nat- 
ural; and  afterwards  that  which  is  spiritual," 
we  have  commenced  with  and  confined  our- 
selves to  the  latter  alone ;  have  struggled  with 
results  instead  of  with  causes;  have  worked  at 
the  surface,  and  not  at  the  center;  tried  to  dip 
up  the  foul  stream  of  sin  at  its  mouth,  instead 
of  going  to  its  source. 

A  recent  writer  in  the  Christian  Union  has 
words  on  this  point  which  are  as  wise  as  they 
are  significant  of  the  needs  of  the  hour.  The 
world  is  coming  to  demand  that  Christianity 
should  rise  up  to  its  capabilities,  and  laying  the 
axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  should  do  its  whole 
duty.  "I  see  no  hope,"  he  says,  "of  a  regen- 
erated future  on  this  planet  except  Christianity 
can  push  its  principles  and  life  back  through 
ethical  and  legal  channels  so  as  to  purify  the 


284  T/ie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

physical  sources  of  life.  This  I  believe  it  is 
amply  competent  to  do  when  it  shall  bend  its 
energies  mainly  to  saving  the  'life  that  now  is,' 
and  to  saving  it  in  its  entirety,  as  a  physical, 
moral,  and  spiritual  entity,  here  and  beyond; 
for  if  this  world  is  well  taken  care  of,  the  next 
will  take  care  of  itself."  Experience  is  adding 
its  voice  to  call  for  what  the  teachings  of  Script- 
ure and  of  Evolution  alike  insist  upon.  In  the 
divine  work  of  lifting  man  up  to  God,  whether 
as  an  individual  or  as  a  social  organism,  we 
must  use  all  means ;  every  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious influence,  every  spiritual  and  physical 
agency,  furnished  by  God,  must  be  employed 
in  the  service  of  religion. 

For  the  individual,  for  instance,  besides  the 
means  we  now  almost  exclusively  use,  we  must 
enlist  also  the  myriad  agencies  that  are  alive 
and  active  in  every  one's  environment.  With 
them  we  can  mightily  facilitate  the  new  birth. 
It  is  vain  to  ask  God  to  create  a  clean  heart  in 
a  body 'that  is  habitually  encrusted  with  tilth. 
Make  outward  cleanliness  to  surround  it  first, 
and  the  pure  heart  will  be  possible  which-  only 
can  see  God.  While  the  hunger  and  thirst  for 
bread  and  meat  are  pinching  and  exhausting 
the  physical  frame,  there  is  no  room  in  con- 
sciousness for  that  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness  which  the  Spirit  satisfies.  Shiv- 
ering in  scanty  rags,  the  robe  of  Jesus'  right- 
eousness will  be  refused  for  a  more  material 


Religion.  285 

garment  to  warm  the  flesh  and  bones.  In  a 
dingy,  dark  hovel,  adorned  by  nothing  but  loud 
prints  of  half-nude  actresses  on  the  walls, 
' '  Police  Gazettes' '  on  the  table,  and  ribald  songs 
in  the  air,  there  is  small  likelihood  of  the  beauty 
of  holiness  being  appreciated.  We  must  dis- 
tribute soap,  food,  clothing,  coal,  as  well  as 
tracts  and  Bibles.  "We  must  pay  more  heed  to 
the  physical  conditions,  the  material  soil  out  of 
which  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  are  to  grow.  If 
the  soil  be  not  first  prepared,  nearly  all  the  seed 
we  sow  thereon  will  be  utterly  wasted. 

And  just  so  with  the  growth  in  grace.  The 
new-born  man  must  be  fed  and  nourished 
through  every  channel,  with  food  adapted  to 
every  organ  and  part  of  the  ' '  physical,  moral, 
and  spiritual  entity, ' '  so  that  the  whole  charac- 
er  may  be  truly  converted  to  God  and  developed 
in  God  into  a  symmetrical,  well-rounded  man. 
All  the  time  we  must  remember  that  while 
every  individual  is  a  unity,  he  is  also  an  organic 
member  of  the  social  body.  "And  whether 
one  member  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with 
it;  or  one  member  be  honored,  all  the  members 
rejoice  with  it. ' '  We  may  therefore  not  look 
for  completeness,  perfection  of  religiousness  in 
the  individual ;  but  must  expect  all  the  others 
to  eke  out,  to  complement,  the  imperfections 
and  defects  of  each.  Social  environment  must 
be  made  the  efficient  factor  it  is  meant  to  be, 
strengthening  righteous  incentives,  furnishing 


286  The  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

needed  restraints,  cheering,  helping  all.  And 
in  return  this  organism  is  itself  made  by  so  much 
more  religious  as  each  new  religious  member 
is  an  added  point  in  it  of  the  union  with  God. 
Not  only  for  the  individual's  sake,  therefore, 
but  also  for  the  world's,  our  energies  need  to  be 
bent  more  earnestly  and  intelligently  than  has 
thus  far  been  done  directly  to  the  regeneration 
of  the  whole  social  and  race  organism.  The 
recognition  of  this  truth  more  fully  than  was 
done  before,  by  the  most  advanced  theologians 
and  Christian  workers  of  the  present,  is  one  of 
the  most  hopeful  signs  of  a  more  enlightened 
religious  life  for  the  future.  And  I  am  con- 
vinced it  is  one  of  the  good  fruits  already  visible 
of  the  application  of  the  principles  of  Evolution 
to  the  work  of  Christianity, — if  unconscious  not 
therefore  less  real.  The  "New  Theology,"  for 
instance,  according  to  Dr.  Munger,  "turns  our 
attention  to  the  corporate  life  of  man  in  the 
world, — an  individual  life,  indeed,  but  spring- 
ing from  common  roots,  fed  by  a  common  life, 
watched  over  by  one  Father,  inspired  by  one 
Spirit,  and  growing  to  one  end;  no  man,  no 
generation,  being  'made  perfect'  by  itself. 
Hence  its  ethical  emphasis;  hence  its  recognition 
of  the  nation,  and  of  the  family,  and  of  social 
and  commercial  life,  as  fields  of  the  manifesta- 
tion of  God  and  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit ; 
hence  its  readiness  to  ally  itself  with  all  move- 
ments for  bettering  the  condition  of  mankind, 


Religion.  287 

— holding  that  human  society  itself  is  to  be 
redeemed,  and  that  the  world  itself,  in  its  cor- 
porate capacity,  is  being  reconciled  with  God. "  12 
Fully  realizing  this,  Christians  will  aim  at 
larger  results  than  the  mere  regeneration  of  in- 
dividual, matured  sinners;  and  therefore  will 
use  larger  and  more  radical  means,  besides 
those  it  now  employs.  Not  content  with  snatch  - 
ing  here  and  there  a  brand  from  the  burning, 
they  will  take  measures  also  for  quenching  the 
fire  itself.  For  instance,  they  will  engage  the 
services  of  that  vast  array  of  subtle  forces  in- 
volved in  the  principle  of  heredity.  Now  they 
are  allowed  to  obey  almost  without  hinderance 
the  degenerative  law  of  reversion  that  makes  for 
sin  and  death.  Where  we  succeed  in  convert- 
ing one  sinner,  these  supply  his  place  by  a 
dozen  new  ones,  in  whom  the  poison-germs  of 
vice  and  crime  are  inborn,  spawned  in  the  mill- 
ion reeking  dens  and  hovels  of  our  cities,  pro- 
ducing new  generations  of  beings  more  degraded 
and  vicious  than  the  old.  The  conditions  under 
which  their  production  is  made  so  terribly  great 
must  be  destroyed.  Religious  teaching  alone 
will  not  do  it.  It  must  be  complemented  by 
religious  laws,  religious  architecture,  religious 
feeding,  by  every  means  that  will  tend  to  purify 
the  fountains  of  human  life  and  society  that 
now  are  almost  hopelessly  befouled. 

12  The  Freedom  of  Faith— Introd. 


288  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

Whatever  human  institutions  help  to  foster 
and  sustain  ignorance  and  poverty,  with  their 
commonly  attendant  evils  of  intemperance,  filth, 
unchastity,  indolence,  physical  and  moral  un- 
healthiness,  by  so  much  help  to  beget  and  bear 
a  class  of  society  whose  rapid  growth  is  one  of 
the  greatest  dangers  of  our  country,  and  one  of 
the  most  fatal  obstacles  to  its  religious  advance- 
ment. And  whatever  agencies  and  measures, 
therefore,  will  tend  to  remove  such  ignorance 
and  poverty,  and  to  remove  the  conditions  of 
domestic  infidelity  and  unhappiness,  intemper- 
ance and  evil, — and  there  are  many  others  be- 
sides poverty  and  ignorance — such  agencies  are 
to  be  freely,  strongly  employed  in  the  name  of 
religion  and  of  Christ.  Their  past  neglect  has 
been  the  weakness  and  the  reproach  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  divine  Love  and  Eighteousness 
must  be  allowed  to  work  through  the  political, 
educational,  medical,  mercantile,  and  all  other 
institutions  that  mould  and  shape  society,  the 
nation,  and  the  race.  The  Spirit  of  God  must 
control  these  as  directly  and  fully  as  he  must 
control  all  else.  The  more  he  does  this,  the 
more  will  individuals  be  brought  under  his  sav- 
ing sway.  It  is  a  truth  just  as  certain  as  the 
other,  that  the  more  individuals  are  religious, 
the  more  religious  will  the  whole  social  body 
be.  The  two  go  together.  One  is  as  true  and 
as  important  as  the  other.  And  what  a  field  it 
gives  for  Christian  effort  and  labor!  What  a 


Religion.  289 

host  of  possible  allies!  What  a  store  of  new 
find  mighty  weapons !  Aye,  and  how  large  and 
glorious  a  hope  it  sets  before  the  earnest  dis- 
ciple ! 

Will  the  field  ever  be  fully  occupied  ?  Will 
the  allies  ever  be  enlisted;  the  new  weapons 
and  forces  applied ;  this  glorious  hope  be  ever 
realized  ? 

Certainly  not  so  long  as  Christianity  and 
Evolution  are  made  to  appear  as  antagonistic 
and  contradictory  systems.  But  when  once 
evolutionists  shall  be  consistent  enough  frankly 
to  confess  that  their  system  without  God,  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  without 
the  facts  of  Providence  and  prayer,  of  sin  and 
salvation,  is  incomplete  and  erroneous;  and 
shall  be  willing,  consciously  as  they  already  do 
unconsciously,  to  accept  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity as  the  necessary  complement  of  their 
own,  and  its  motive  and  end  as  the  essential 
realities  that  alone  render  intelligible  and  of 
practical  worth  that  sublime  method  which 
their  system  so  clearly  sets  forth;  then  will 
they  no  longer  refuse  to  embrace  religion,  nor 
confound  it  with  mere  superstition  unworthy  of 
rational  men.  They  will  see  that  Christians  are 
laboring  with  them  in  working  out  the  eternal 
destinies  of  the  world;  and  will  freely  join 
hands  in  the  common  task.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  when  once  Christians  shall  have  faith 
enough  to  acknowledge,  with  that  one  of  their 


290  TJie  Unity  of  the  Truth. 

huinber  who  has  most  carefully  examined  the 
structural  principles  of  Evolution,  that  it  is 
"  The  Via  Sacra  of  the  universe ;  the  road  along 
which  the  Blessed  One  walked  forth,  first  in 
Creative  power  and  majesty,  then  in  loving 
providential  care,  then  in  higher  wisdom  and 
goodness,  foreshadowing  what  He  was  about 
to  do,  and  finally  along  this  path  reached  His 
Cross,  and  there  consummated  that  sacrifice  by 
which  alone  His  infinite  love  was  revealed;"13 
then  will  they  no  longer  suspect  and  fear  and 
hate  the  system  as  ungodly  and  sinful,  but  see 
in  it  only  another  form  of  expressing  the  essen- 
tial truth  they  ever  have  held.  Then  will  each 
strengthen  the  other;  and  both  together  go 
forth  in  a  more  earnest  and  effective  warfare 
than  ever  yet  has  been  waged  against  the  united 
hordes  of  blind  error  and  ignorance  and  hosts 
of  evil  and  sin.  Then  will  indeed  victory  soon 
perch  on  the  banners  of  Truth,  and  the  time 
not  be  so  far  distant  as  now,  when  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea. 

13  W.  D.  Ground — Examination  of  Slruct'l  Principles  of 
Spencer's  Philosophy. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


ABBOTT,   LYMAN,    237, 

270,  279. 
^Eschylus,  210. 
Agassiz,  L.,  168. 
A  ndover    Revieiv,    Tlie, 

186,  244. 
Apostles,    Teaching     of 

the  Twelve,  70. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  94,  248. 
Arnold,  Edwin,  70. 
Arnold,    Matthew,     63, 

72,  153. 

BEECHER,  H.  W.,  100. 
Biedermann,  244. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  266. 
Browning,  E.  B.,  162. 
Bryant,  W.  C.,  140. 
Biichner,  L.,  145. 

CALVIN,  J.,  216. 
Carlyle,  T.,  18,  33. 
Carpenter,  W.  B.,  154. 
Christian    Union,    The, 

237,  283. 

Clarke,  J.  F.,  245. 
Cobbe,   F.   P.,  44,   133, 

184. 


Cocker,  B.  F.,  100,  212. 
Coleridge,    S.    T.,   132, 

178,  191. 
Cowper,  W.,  82. 

DARWIN,  CHARLES,  132, 

134,    135,    140,    149, 

185. 
Diman,    J.    L.,  12,   24, 

59,  140,  188. 
Drummond,     H.,     195, 

244. 

EDWARDS,  J.,  216. 
Elder  Edda,  The,  213. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  38,  53, 

64. 
Erskine,  Thos.,  236. 

FARRAR,  F.  W.,  12. 
Fisher,  Geo.  P.,  60,  79, 

105,     106,    107,    132, 

143,  216. 
Fiske,  John,  48,  49,  58, 

70,  77,  141,  146,  157, 

182. 
Fremantle,   W.    H.,  94, 

198,    244,    254,    261, 
•  265. 


292 


Index  of  Authors. 


GLADDEN,  W.,  265. 
Goethe,  J.  W.,  38,  198 
Gould,  S.  Baring,  247. 
Gray,  Asa,  136. 
Ground,    W.    D.,    250 
290. 

H^ECKEL,  E.,  145. 
Hamilton,  Sir  \Vm.,  45 

118. 

Harris,  George,  276. 
Harris,  Samuel,  60,  66, 

132,  140,  152. 
Heine,  H.,  248. 
Huxley,  T.,  49, 132, 149. 

JOHNSON,  F.  H.,  186. 

KESHUB  CHTINDER  SEN, 
38. 

LANGE,  F.  A.,  145. 
Le  Conte,  Jos.,  77. 
Longfellow,  H..W.,  117, 

118. 
Lowell,  J.   R.,    17,   38, 

57,  128,  245. 
Lubbock,    Sir    J.,    120, 

178,  185. 

MAYER,  J.  R..,  48,  146. 

McCosh,  Jas.,  100,  106, 

123,  138,  143,  144. 


Milton,  J.,  83,  102,  171. 
Mivart,  St.  G.,  135. 
Mozley,  J.  B.,  217,  231, 

236. 
Mozoomdar,  P.  C.,  100, 

109,  110,  272. 
Mulford,  E.,  233. 
Miiller,  Max,  45. 
Hunger,   T.   T.,  5,  32, 

38,  154,  198,  286. 

OWEN,  JOHN,  21. 
PASCAL,  162. 

Pindar,  211. 
Plato,  212. 
Pope,  J.,  207. 
Porter,  Noah,  147. 


ROBERTSON,  F.  W., 
231. 


SCHILLER,  F.,  162,  174 

Schleiermacher,  F.,  32, 
231. 

Smyth,  Newman,  244, 
253,  274. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  12,  16, 
27,  29,  32,  45,  46,  47, 
48,55,60,76,81,  119, 
147,  171,  179,  180, 


Index  of  Authors. 


293 


181,    194,    241,    244, 
253,  259. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  196. 

TALMAGE,    T.   DE  W., 
133. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  70. 
Tennyson,    Alfred,    30, 

52,  94,  97,  156. 
Tertullian,  275. 
Tyler,  M.  C.,  31. 
Tyndall,  J.,  145,  150. 


VENABLE,   W.    II.,    12, 

262. 
Vogt,  C.,  145. 

WALLACE,  A.  R.,   135, 

146. 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  111. 
Wigglesworth,  M.,  31. 


YATE,  120. 
Youmans,  E.  L.,  48. 


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